a terrain for collection & recollection

undergraduate architecture thesis

THE [ ]STRUCTION OF

MEMORY

A Terrain for Collection & Recollection

sarah Kia

You come from the West, where the past is safe and so you can make things that are about the future.

But for those of us... whose past has been very nearly annihilated, we have to secure the past before

we can even begin to think about the future.

Andrew Solomon, A Time of Hope: The Moth

the [ ]struction of memory


For my Grandparentswho still reside in Tehran, and have seen it all.

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THE [ ]STRUCTION OF

MEMORY

table of contents

i. A Terrain for Collection & Recollection ............................................ 6a. Overview .................................................................................... 8b. Context: Understanding the Islamic Republic of Iran .......... 10c. Building the Palace: Containing the Memory ...................... 16 d. Site: Laleh Park, Tehran, Iran ................................................ 18 e. Program: The Institution for Collective Remembering ......... 22

ii. The Institution for Collective Remembering (ICR) .......................... 24 a. Individual Remembering: The Garden for Memory ............ 26

b. From Individual to Collective Remembering ........................ 32c. Collective Remembering: Archive & Exhibition ................... 34

iii. Mnemotechnic Index ..................................................................... 46 a. Mnemotechnic Drawings ........................................................ 50 b. Precedents ................................................................................. 52c. Site Analysis: Laleh Park, Tehran ........................................... 62 d. Spatial Mnemonics .................................................................. 70e. On Collection & Recollecting .................................................. 80

table of contents

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THE GREEN MOVEMENT: 2009 RIOTS

THE REVOLUTION OF ‘79

WHY [RE-DEFINE] ARCHIVE? The Institution of Collective Remembering (ICR) The ICR challenges the methods of conventional archival agencies: aiming to minimize the gap between the public and the artifacts themselves, through a constant wrapping of exhibi-tion and archive at varying scales [hiding and revealing one to the other]. The ICR collects, preserves, and most importantly- renders accessible the material related to the social and cultural history of Iranians in Tehran

OVERVIEW The binary nature of the investigation explores two modes of remembering: individual remembering and collective re-remembering through the act of collecting. The act of collecting enables us with the ability to reframe context. Once objects are removed from their original context it is possible to create an entirely new composition. Much of this investigation explores the role of harmony within a provisional and changing hierarchical system in order to hold ostensibly dissimilar parts together in a new whole. The transition between the garden & the archive emphasizes this part to whole relationship, and fosters a realization of one’s role within the collective composition.

You come from the West, where the past is safe and so you can make things that are about the future. But for those of us... whose past has been very nearly annihilated, we have to secure the past before we can even begin to think about the future.

– Andrew Solomon, A Time of Hope

A Collective Remembering Device for Tehran, Iran. Situated in the corner of Laleh Park, the Institution for Collective Remembering [garden, archive, lab +exhibition] embeds the mnemonics of memory within the language of the space to foster the construction of memory and associations; providing a terrain for the collection and recollection of memory.CONTEXT The inquiry of Memory begins in

Tehran, Iran, a place where the past- at the mercy of cyclically oppressive regimes-has been too close to being forgotten. This thesis considers the imperative need for collective remembering.

Iran is a country full of contradictions and paradoxes [...] It boasts the oldest consti-tutional movement in the Middle East and the second oldest parliament in Asia after Japan. Yet it has toppled a constitutional monarchy to replace it with a theocratic autocracy. It has the highest ratio in female higher education despite the fact that females are confined within the boundaries of the Islamic dress code. It is prowwud of its internationally credited scientists and researchers, and yet it has one of the largest numbers of drug addicts per capita in the world....

- Kaveh Basmenji, Tehran Blues

BUILDING THE PALACE: CONTAINING THE MEMORY Our memory works by association. The Memory Palace is a spatial mnemonic device where a series of spaces are cognitively conceived for the allocation of memories. An object or ei-detic trait of the room bears the association of the memory. Medieval mnemonic crafts relied heavily on this pairing of word and image as aids for learning. In an act of recollection, one would simply take a ‘mental walk’ through the spaces in order to retrieve them from where they were placed.

BUILDING THE PALACE: CONTAINING THE MEMORY ARCHIVE: INTERIOR ELEVATION

EXISTING SITE CONDITIONS

ABANDONED CONSTRUCTION SITE: The forgotten foundation serves as the basis for the study of remembering. Working with its existing geometries- two grids shifting on top of one another- the trace of its existing conditions are imbued within the form of the Garden of Memories.

GROUND PLAN (GARDEN OF MEMORIES)

ARCHITECTURE IS A TERRAIN FOR REMEMBERING & FORGETTING A COLLECTIVE REMEMBERING DEVICE FOR TEHRAN, IRAN

THE ACT OF COLLECTING We don’t often consider collecting as a means of re-membering. Through collection, that is- the removal of an object from its original context to create a series- it is possible to create an entirely new composition. The act of collecting enables us with the ability to reframe context. For a place like Tehran, Iran, this mode of remembering makes it possible to remember the past in a sensitive way.

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Overview: A Terrain for Collection & Recollection

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MASS TO HOLD A LIGHT INFRASTRUCTURE: Sleeves at varying depths are slipped into the ex-trusion of the foundation grid, providing contain-ers for the deposition of memory and artifacts. The concept of circulation is clear- a central order is established, though provisional, and offered is a range of secondary space systems beneath its depths (like tributaries of a river) to provide a terrain to meander comfortably and with ease. Every viewport entices you to happen upon a new room to discover: by definition, the Garden of Memories is a Zen Garden, hiding and revealing simultaneously in an act of exploration: “Each view, fragmentary as it was, opened obliquely onto another and then still others. And if the opening was not toward a new setting, it was toward a new aspect of a setting that had been seen previously” (Leatherbarrow).

A LIGHTER INFRASTRUCTURE TO HOLD THE MASS[ES]: Turning section into plan, the Archive collects the shafts within the Garden of Memories: treating their varying size and depths as architectural artifacts rather than relying on the objects contained within. A wrapping of exhibition [mass] with archive [infrastruc-ture] at varying scales creates opportunities to simultaneously hide and reveal the nature of one to the other. Archivists can simultaneously research and curate the collections while visitors experience them.

CROSS SECTION (GARDEN OF MEMORIES)

SITE PLAN

TURNING SECTION INTO PLAN: MEMORY WALL VOLUMES

COLLECTED WITHIN THE ICR

ARCHIVE+EXHIBITION CROSS SECTION

TRANSITION BETWEEN GARDEN OF INDIVIDUAL REMEMBERING & ARCHIVE

TRANSITION BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL & COLLECTIVE REMEMBERING: The transition between the garden & the archive fosters a realization of one’s role within the collective composition. The garden and the archive are connected both above and below grade (through visual space). At their juncture, visi-tors can make sense of their part to whole relationship- without neces-sarily having to fully enter. The story-telling center cantilevers above this connection, emphasizing a multiplicity of interconnectedness at this axis.

The ICR consists of 4 primary elements:

ARCHIVE (30,000+ SF)GARDEN (12,000+ SF)EXHIBITION (20,000 SF) RESEARCH (10,000 SF)

8 the [ ]struction of memory

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Context: Understanding the Making of the Islamic Republic

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Iran is a country full of contradictions and paradoxes [...] It boasts the oldest constitutional movement in the Middle East and the second oldest parliament in Asia after Japan. Yet it has toppled a constitutional monarchy to replace it with a theocrat-ic autocracy. It has the highest ratio in female higher education despite the fact that females are confined within the boundaries of the Islamic dress code. It is proud of its internationally cred-ited scientists and researchers, and yet it has one of the largest

numbers of drug addicts per capita in the world...

Kaveh Basmenji, Tehran Blues

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CONTEXT: A BRIEF HISTORY UNDERSTANDING THE MAKING OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

HISTORYBefore the Revolution - the time of ‘Reza Shah’ and the ‘Shah’ ‘The first Iranian nation was founded in the seventh century... it was later destroyed by Cyrus the Great. He established what became one of the largest empires of the ancient world, the Persian Empire. In the sixth century, Iran was referred to as Persia (its Greek name) until 1935 when Reza Shah, the father of the last Shah of Iran, asked everyone to call the country Iran. Iran was rich. Because of its wealth and geographic location, it was often subject to foreign domination yet its strong culture and language withstood.’ [...] “In the twentieth century, Iran entered a new phase. Reza Shah decided to modernize the country, but meanwhile a fresh source of wealth was discovered: oil. And with the oil came another invasion. The West, particularly Great Britain, wielded a strong influence on the Iranian economy. During the Second World War, the British, Soviets, and Americans asked Reza Shah to ally himself with them against Germany. But Reza Shah, who sympathized with the Germans, declared Iran a neutral zone. So the Allies invaded and occupied Iran. Reza Shah was sent into exile and was succeeded by his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was known simply as the Shah” (Satrapi).

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PRE-REVOLUTION

“In 10-12 years we shall reach the quality of life enjoyed by you Europeans.”

- The Shah, in roundtable discussion with French TV

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POST 1978-9 REVOLUTION...From one authoritarian rule to another Ayatollah Khomeini came into political prominence in the early 1960’s, criticizing many of the Shah’s programs (i.e. the White Revolution). He issued a political manifesto listing the various ways in which the Shah had violated the Constitution. In 1963, widespread riots ensued when the Shah had Khomeini arrested. Martial law was declared and hundreds were killed. Khomeini spent thirteen years in exile, where his criticism of the Shah continued to spread through leaflets and cassettes. In the 1970’s, the Shah’s secret police (SAVAK) increased spying, arrests, torture, and killing. Iran became a stage for economic hardship, inflation, lower oil revenues, and extraneous budget deficits; propelling much of the motive for the 1978-9 Revolution. On December 10 and 11, a ‘total of 6 to 9 million’ anti-shah demonstrators marched throughout Iran. According to one historian, ‘even discounting for exaggeration, these figures may represent the largest protest event in history’” (Kurzman). To no avail, what had been anticipated as a time of hope and change, ended with the catastrophic replacement of one authoritarian rule with a merci-less and repressive regime. Since 1979, the Islamic Republic has systematically adopted policies aimed at crushing all individuals and organizations which refuse to conform with its totalitarian ideology. On June 20, 1981, half a million residents of Tehran took to the streets to start organized resistance against the Khomeini regime. Revolutionary Guards fired on the crowds, killing scores, and thousands were arrested. Since then, leaders of the People’s Mojahedin estimate that at least 70,000 opponents of the regime have been killed, 140,000 imprisoned (Basmenji).

For today’s youth, neither politics nor culture, nor even society is important. There is a true crisis of values going on. As young revolutionaries, we used to have great hopes for the future. We were dreaming of the day when the Revolution triumphed and we were all free. We were longing for the future, but today’s youngsters do not believe in the future, because they see no future...’

- Kaveh Basmenji, Tehran Blues

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THE GENERATION OF THE REVOLUTION

THE 2009 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

KHOMEINI’S REIGN OF TERROR

IRAN-IRAQ WAR

FUNDAMENTALIST CRACKDOWN: MASS EXECUTIONS OF OPPOSITION GROUPS

1926- BEGINNING OF PAHLAVI DYNASTY

TIME OF ‘REZA SHAH’1935- PERSIA OFFICIALLY

RENAMED IRAN

WWII: REZA SHAH SENT INTO EXILE, REPLACED BY PUPPET SON -

POWER STRUGGLE BETWEEN PARLIAMENT & SHAH OVER

NATIONALIZING OIL

“WHITE REVOLUTION,” CAMPAIGN TO WESTERNIZE

SHAH’S POLICE (SAVAK) & AUTHORITARIAN RULE

RISE OF KHOMEINI’S PROMINENCE

ANTIQUITY - EARLY MODERN ERA

PRE-REVOLUTION

1978-9 REVOLUTION

POST-REVOLUTION

THE GREEN MOVEMENT

FROM ONE AUTHORITARIAN RULE TO ANOTHER


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diaspora noun the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland.

Iran: A Field Guide - Understanding the Making of the Islamic Republic,’ is an anthology of photographs, journalism, art, and revolutionary propaganda collected for the investigation, to better understand and make accessible the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran

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If there is anyone who believes that there will be another wave [of unrest] in Iran, I totally disagree. In Iran, an event will not take place easily. Because the clergy and the religious forces are

the most rooted classes of this society... There are a hundred thousand mosques and Hosseiyyehs, surrounded by a lot of

good people, and the clergy has the leadership. Now that we are in power; the mosques must be accountable to the opposition. If

someday a government takes over that is against these [reli-gious classes], putting them in opposition, they will give such a

government hell.

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 2004 Tehran Blues

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eidetic adjective Psychology. relating to or denoting mental images having unusual vividness and detail, as if actually visible.

Our memory is built on associations. The Memory Palace, or method of loci (plural of Latin locus for place or location) is a mnemonic device that relies on memorized spatial relationships to collect, order and recollect memory. A series of spaces (real, fictitious, or both) are conceived in the mind for the deposition of memories; an object, image, or eidetic trait bears the as-sociation. Medieval mnemonic crafts relied heavily on this pairing of word and image as aids for learning. In an act of recollec-tion, one would simply take a ‘mental walk’ through the spaces in order to retrieve them from where they were placed. It is critical to use eidetic images: abbreviating and abstracting from them the vital details that would allow him to generalize the whole.

Building the Palace: Containing the Memory

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“Postmemory is a powerful and a very particular form of memory, precisely be-cause its connection to its object or source is mediated not through recollection but through an imaginative investment and creation… Postmemory characterizes the experience of those who grow up dominat-ed by narratives that preceded their birth, whose own belated stories are evacuated by the stories of the previous generation shaped by traumatic events that can be neither understood nor recreated” (Hirsch 1997, p.22).

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ALBORZ MOUNTAIN RANGE

REVOLUTION ROAD

TEHRAN UNIVERSITY

TEHRAN CONTEMPORARY ARTS MUSEUM

LALEH PARK(PARK-E-FARAH)

SHAHEED UNIVERSITY

ENGHELAB SQ.

HEJAB ST

KESHAVAR

Z BLVD

0 10050 250 500 n

AZAD

I SQ

UARE

LALEH HOTEL

VALIASR SQ.

The emblem of Iran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution features a stylized Perso-Arabic script of the arabic word Allah (“God”). The five parts of the emblem symbolize the Principles of the Religion. Above the sword is a shadda: in Arabic script, this is used to double a letter. The shape of the emblem is chosen to resemble a tulip, for the memory of the people who died for Iran.

Site: Laleh Park, Tehran, Iran

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the Islamic Regime to erase former place names and meanings. Among these, ‘Laleh Park,’ formerly named ‘Farah Park,’ after the former Queen; ‘Hejab’ (Head covering) Street, formerly named ‘Los Angeles’ Street; and ‘Kesharvaz’ (Farmer) Boulevard, formerly named Elizabet Boulevard.

‘Laleh’ (Tulip) It is an ancient belief in Iran, dating back to mythology that if a young soldier dies patriotically a red tulip will grow on his grave. In recent years it has been considered the symbol of martyrdom.

EXISTING SITE CONDITIONS: FORGOTTEN FOUNDATIONS Abandoned Construction Site in the Southeast Corner of Laleh Park The forgotten foundation serves as the basis for the study of remembering. Construction began on a high-rise hotel, at the intersection of of Hejab Street and Kesharvaz Boulevard, but work ceased after pouring a majority of the foundation. Left behind are remnants of the projects development and a deep excavation (approximated depth 50-60 ft.) in a major corner of the park. Work-ing with its existing geometries (two grids, shifting on top of one another), the trace of its existing conditions are imbued within the form of the Garden.

FORGOTTEN FOUNDATIONS (EXISTING CONDITIONS)

Laleh Park, Tehran, Iran Similar in function and relative location to New York’s Central Park, Laleh Park is revered as one of the few public spaces for leisure and recreation. A num-ber of attractions line the edges of the park, including: the Tehran Contem-porary Arts Museum, Iran’s National Carpet Museum, and a Namaz-Khaneh (prayer room) by prominent Iranian architect Kamran Diba.

SITE: LALEH PARK, TEHRAN, IRANABANDONED CONSTRUCTION SITE

LALEH PARK

KESHARVAZ BOULEVARDHEJAB STREETLALEH PARK

Traces of the Past Much at the intersection of present-day youth and the historic city center; Laleh Park is one block north of a number of universities, and not much farther from Revolution Road- a street witness to mil-lions of marching demonstrators since the time of the Shah. In an effort to strategi-cally eliminate oppositional political traces, valiant efforts have been made by

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Site: Laleh Park, Tehran, Iran

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The Mourning Mothers of Laleh Park The Mourning Mothers was formed in June 2009 after the deaths of Neda Agha-Soltan and Sohrab Arabi, by a number of mothers who had either lost their children or whose children had gone missing. The Mourning Mothers and their supporters decided to gather every Saturdy between 5 and 6 pm in Laleh Park- dressed in black and in si-lence, until their demands were considered. Their gatherings have consistently been broken up by assaults by security forces, however, and many have been arrrested. “About seventy of the mothers and their supporters were in the park when the secu-rity forces began to pursue them and move them out [...] A number ran away, but they arrested around thirty of them and forced them into police vans” (“Mourning Moth-ers Arrested in Laleh Park,” 2010).

“NEDA,” LALEH PARK15

“The artifact is too often hoarded by the agency of the archivalists themselves, and become useless in the public’s ability to engage them [...] If the evidence that society gathers and stores from history can no longer be used by the public to generate new knowledge then what is the point of archiving in the first place?”

- Bryan Finoki, Decoding Military Landscapes

OVERVIEW The Institution of Collective Remembering (ICR) Situated in the corner of Laleh Park, the Institution for Collective Remembering (ICR) embeds the mnemonics of memory within the language of the space to foster the construction of memory and associations: providing a terrain for the collection and recollection of memory. The Institution for Collective Remembering [garden, lab, archive, and exhibition] is a new organization formed by material historians, memory advocates, and archivists alike with the objective of revolutionizing the way in which we collect, organize, and experi-ence memory.

WHY [RE-DEFINE] ARCHIVE?The ICR challenges the methods of conventional archival institutions: aiming to minimize the gap between the public and the artifacts themselves, through a constant wrapping of exhibition and archive at varying scales [hiding and revealing one to the other]. The ICR collects, preserves, and most importantly- renders accessible the material related to the social and cultural history of Iranians in Tehran, Iran.

TWO MODES OF REMEMBERING The binary nature of the program explores two modes of remember-ing: individual remembering and collective re-remembering through the act of collecting.

THE ACT OF COLLECTING Remembering to Forget, Forgetting to Remember We don’t often consider collecting as a means of remembering. Through collection, that is- the removal of an object from its original context to create a series- we are able to create an entirely new composition. The act of collecting enables us with the ability to reframe context. For a place like Tehran, Iran, this mode of remem-bering makes it possible to remember the past in a sensitive way.

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PROGRAM: THE INSTITUTION OF COLLECTIVE REMEMBERINGGARDEN, ARCHIVE, EXHIBITION, + RESEARCH

Gerhard Richter’s Atlas, ‘an apparatus of Remembrance’

Program: The Institution of Collective Remembering (ICR)

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ARCHIVE Archive is the primary dimension of the ICR. It is paramount that the storage of these artifacts be accessible to the public. +Writings: Journals, Letters, Prose, Poetry, Travel Writings, Essays, Periodicals+Film and Media: Photography, music, film, sound+Artworks: Calligraphy, painting, embroidery, weaving, rugs, other handicrafts+Legal Documents: Wedding contracts, Dowry documents, settle-ments, endowments, powers of attorney, wills, sales, and other financial contracts+Everyday objects+Oral histories

GARDENThe Garden of Memories provides an archive curated by the public, for the public, for the deposition and preservation of memory. Visi-tors who store their artifacts within the walls of the Garden may choose to secure them there for future recollection, or contribute to the growing collection of the ICR archive: providing researchers at the ICR with a vast resource of collective material history. Rotating exhibitions are frequently comprised of these artifacts.

EXHIBITION +Permanent Collections +Temporary Collections+Visual Media Theater +Story-telling Center +Staging warehouse, shop & loading dock

RESEARCH +Digital Documentation Center +Archivist Laboratories+Offices/Administration

The IMH consists of 4 primary elements:

ARCHIVE (30,000+ SF)GARDEN (12,000+ SF)EXHIBITION (20,000 SF) RESEARCH (10,000 SF)

ICR PRIMARY ELEMENTS

SITE PLAN

“Once the object is completely severed from its origin, it is possible to generate a new series, to start again within a context that is framed by the selectivity of the collector… While the point of the souvenir may be remembering, the point of the col-lection is forgetting—starting again in such a way that a finite number of elements create, by virtue of their combination, an infinite reverie. Whose labor made the ark is not the question: the question is what is inside…”

- Susan Stewart, On LongingKURT SCHWITTERS,

UNTITLED SELF PORTRAIT

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HEJAB STREET

KESHARVAZ BLVD

LALE

H PA

RK


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The Institution for Collective Remembering [Garden&Archive] is situated in the corner of Laleh Park, at the intersection of Hejab Street and Kesharvaz Boulevard. The abandoned construction site serves as the basis for the investigation of remembering.

Visitors slip into the ICR from Laleh Park- where one can either descend into the Garden, or enter the Archives from one of the two entry points. The staging warehouse and below-grade parking are accessible from the loading dock off of Hejab St. A large reflection pool mediates the corner of the site, to both bridge the commotion of Kesharvaz Blvd but to also invite passerbys from the street. Similarly, water wraps the east elevation, primarily to act as a medium for diffused light to enter below-grade spaces, but to also distance itself from the Ministry of Agriculture and sprawl along Hejab Street.

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EXISTING SITE CONDITIONS (FORGOTTEN FOUNDATIONS)4

Individual Remembering: The Garden of Memories

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The active quality of positive space carves the spatial connection, flows rapidly through the transition, like air moving through a venture tube, and expands into the culminating spaces transforming the walls of rooms into transcendent niched volumes; and turning the ornament of surfaces into poetic testaments of the will of the soul.

- Nader Ardalan, The Sense of Unity: the Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture

THE GARDEN OF MEMORIESMass To Hold A Light Infrastructure Sleeves at varying depths are slipped into the extrusion of the foundation grid: provid-ing containers for the deposition of Memory + artifacts. The concept of circulation is clear- a central order is established, though provisional, and offered is a range of sec-ondary space systems (like tributaries of a river) beneath its depths to provide a terrain to meander comfortably and with ease. Every viewport entices you to happen upon a new room to discover: by definition, the Memory Garden is a Zen Garden, hiding and revealing simultaneously in an act of exploration. Likewise, a Miesian landscape: “Each view, fragmentary as it was, opened obliquely onto another and then still others. And if the opening was not toward a new setting, it was toward a new aspect of a setting that had been seen previously” (Leatherbarrow).

DIAGRAMMATIC SECTION


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THE GARDEN OF MEMORIESMEMORY WALLS

MEMORY WALL SECTIONMEMORY WALL ELEVATION

Material Precedent: Kahn’s use of marble bands within the cast-in-place concrete at the National

Assembly Building in Dhaka

Marble tombstone in ‘Zahir al doleh’

Barren and wanting, the thickened walls of the Garden ask for the deposition of memories. Their inherent material properties provide the prospective artifacts with their much needed security. In the locational method of remember-ing, memory spaces require a great deal of security- like a vault.

Precast concrete modules sit into the steel framework that slips into the voids of the extruded mass. Acknowledging the mortality of concrete- marble, a precious material, seams the precast units together. Marble headers and sills hold the sliding stone panels that provide access to the chambers within the wall.The archaic sound of stone rubbing against stone- opening the vaults requires the help of a friend, but the heaviness of their doors provide a layer of security to the memories that they hold.

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MEMORY WALL SECTION THROUGH ELEVATION (LEFT)

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LIGHTER INFRASTRUCTURE TO HOLD THE MASS[ES] Turning Section Into PlanOnce objects are removed from their original context it is possible to create an entirely new composition.The act of collecting enables us with the ability to reframe context. The archive begins to ask ques-tions about collecting by collecting and reframing the shafts within the Garden of Memories. Their varying sizes and depths are treated as architectural artifacts, rather than relying on the objects contained within. Where the garden was a large mass, holding a lighter infra-structure- the Archive becomes a lighter infrastructure holding the masses. A wrapping of exhibition [mass] with archive [infrastructure] at varying scales creates opportunities to simultaneously hide and reveal the nature of one to the other. Archivists can simulatenously research and curate the collections while visitors experience them.

GARDEN OF MEMORIES

INTERIOR ATRIUM

EXTRUDING SECTION INTO PLAN

From Individual to Collective Remembering

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Collective Remembering: Archive & Exhibition

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ARCHIVE [infrastructure] + EXHIBITION [mass] ...Which is the spectacle? A constant wrapping of exhibition and archive provides opportunities to hide and reveal the nature of one to the other at varying scales.Archivists can research and curate the collections while visitors simultaneously experience the collections. Stairs and corridors within the provisional order provide opportunities to travel fluidly between and across floors, and meander with ease.

Threads of Time (x)

Circulation (y)

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FOURTH FLOOR PLAN (EXHIBITION); THIRD FLOOR PLAN (ARCHIVE)


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Threads of Time (x)

Circulation (y)

ANTIQUITY - EARLY MODERN ERA......

SAFAVID EMPIRE .....................................

THE PRESENT ........................................

QAJAR DYNASTY ..................................

THE TIME OF ‘REZA SHAH’ ..................

THE TIME OF THE ‘SHAH.......................’

KHOMEINI...........................................

OPTION 1:Organization Based on Time

ARCHIVE [infrastructure] + EXHIBITION [mass] ...Which is the spectacle?

Archivists predominantly operate within the three atriums (while visitors circulate within the mass). Walls within the atrium carry a similar language to that of the Garden- pro-viding additional space for archiving. Vital to their ability to circulate as well as access the internal atrium Archives are tangential paths along the internal atrium perimeters.

OPTION 2:Organization Based on Program

Threads of Program (x)

Circulation (y)

ATRIUM: Permanent Collection...........................

Film and Media: Photography ........

Legal Documents: Wedding Contracts, Settlesments, etc. .................................

Visual Media Theater ..................................

Oral Histories: Story-telling Center ..................

Writings, Journals, Periodicals ...........

Artworks: Calligraphy, Painting, Embroidery, etc. .........................................

CROSS SECTION DIAGRAM (LEFT); ORGANIZA-

TIONAL DIAGRAMS (RIGHT)

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Early conceptualization of the internal walls of the atrium


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LONGITUDINAL SECTION (ABOVE); FOURTH FLOOR PLAN (RIGHT)


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GROUND FLOOR PLAN

SITE PLAN

TRANSITION BETWEEN GARDEN & ARCHIVE From Individual To Collective Remembering

This investigation examines the role of harmony within a provisional and changing hierarchical system in order to hold ostensibly dissimi-lar parts together in a new whole. The transition between the garden & the archive emphasizes this part to whole relationship, and fosters a realization of one’s role within the collective composition. The Garden & Archive are connected both above and below grade (through visual space). At their juncture- visitors can make sense of their part to whole relationship, below and above grade, without hav-ing to enter. A public room at the face of the south elevation provides passerby’s with a glimpse into the buildings order. Below-grade, two paths joining the garden and the archive run parallel above one another. The second floor of the Garden draws one into the Archives- offering a large window into the digital documentation center, to em-phasize the nature of the collective. Beneath this corridor, Archivists can access the Garden from the digital documentation center to study the artifacts held within prior to their collection. Above grade- the story-telling center cantilevers above this connection, emphasizing a multiplicity of interconnectedness at this axis.

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From Individual to Collective Remembering

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Selected Bibliography

Carruthers, Mary J., and Jan M. Ziolkowski. The Medi-eval Craft of Memory: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylva-nia, 2002. Print.

Stewart, Susan. “Objects of Desire.” On Longing: Narra-tives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1984.

Yates, Frances Amelia. The Art of Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1966. Print.

Basmenji, Kaveh. Tehran Blues. London: Saqi, 2005.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York: Pantheon, 2003.

Wahnich, Sophie, Barbara Lášticová, and Andrej Findor. Politics of Collective Memory: Cultural Patterns of Commemorative Practices in Post-war Europe. Berlin: Lit, 2008.

Leatherbarrow, David. “Law of Meander.” Architecture Oriented Otherwise. New York: Princeton Architec-tural, 2009.

Ardalan, Nader, and Laleh Bakhtiar. The Sense of Unity: The Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1973.

Lurii︠a︠, A. R. The Mind of a Mnemonist; a Little Book about a Vast Memory. New York: Basic, 1968.

Downpour Resurfacing. Prod & Dir. Frances Nkara. 2003.

Benjamin, Walter, and Alex Coles. The Optic of Walter Benjamin. London: Black Dog, 1999.

Images

1 The Day of the Revolution. Feb. 11, 1979. Tehran, Iran. <http://www.iranchamber.com/history/photo_al-bums/revolution79_album1/045_revolution79.jpg>.

2 Ashura Protests: 2009. Tehran, Iran. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/45451792@N04/4251614563/in/pho-tostream>.

3 ‘Laleh Park.’ Tehran, Iran. <http://www.panoramio.com/photo/45292860>.

4 ‘Zamin, Laleh Park.’ Tehran, Iran. <http://www.panora-mio.com/photo/45347235>.

5 ‘Tehran at night’ Tehran, Iran. <http://panoramio.com/photos/original/60272156.jpg>.

6 ‘Cyrus the Great’ Iran. <http://www.flickr.com/pho-tos/64134001@N03/5987823877/sizes/l/in/photo-stream>.

7-8 “Shahinshah and His Queen.” LIFE Magazine Mar. 1951.

9 Krifa, Michket. Regards Persans: Iran, Une Révolution Photographique : Fondation électricité De France, Espace Electra, 20 Juin-31 Août 2001. Paris: Paris Musées, 2001.

10 Green Movement: 2009. Tehran, Iran. <http://inap-cache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/iranelect_06_12/i02_19314853.jpg>.

11 Chelkowski, Peter J., and Hamid Dabashi. Staging a Revolution: The Art of Persuasion in the Islamic Republic of Iran. New York: New York UP, 1999.

12 ‘Laleh Park’ Tehran, Iran. <http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/52017892>.

13 ‘Hejab Street.’ Tehran, Iran. <http://www.panoramio.com/photo/50700463>.

14 ‘Kesharvaz Boulevard.’ Tehran, Iran. <http://www.panoramio.com/photo/9124592>.

15 ‘Neda.’ Tehran, Iran. <http://tenmillionslaves.com/tehran-part-3-beautiful-city-the-tasiest-food/neda-tehran-iran>.

16 ‘Louis Kahn: National Building Assembly’ Dhaka, Ban-gladesh. <http://www.alvaraalto.fi/ptah/issue/0201/img/9_Kahn.jpg>.

17 ‘Zahir al doleh.’ Tehran, Iran. <http://www.forughfar-rokhzad.org/picturealbum/grave14.asp>.

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47

The power of the memory is prodigious, my God, it is a vast, immeasurable sanctuary. Who can

plumb its depths? And yet it is a faculty of my soul. Although it is part of my nature, I cannot under-

stand all that I am. This means, then, that the mind is too narrow to contain itself entirely. But where is that part of it which it does not itself contain? How, then, can it be part of it, if it is not contained in it? I am lost in wonder when I consider this problem.

It bewilders me.

- Augustine, Confessions, 10.8.

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48the [ ]struction of memory


494949

section

50



Re-collection is not passive, but rather an activity involving human will and thought; it is often defined as a form of reasoning…one may think of this activity in spatial terms, as if memories have been stored in a variety of places and must be called together in a common place where we become aware of them, where we can “see” them again and know them in the present.

- Mary Carruthers, The Medieval Craft of Memory

CONTAINING THE MEMORYConstructing Context with Word and Image: [containers of] Memory

Our memory works by associations. Medieval mnemonic crafts relied heavily of the pairing of word and image. A game of relation and abstraction: using eidetic imagery and extracting from them the vital details that would allow us to generalize the whole.This methodology of word image association is carried throughout the work, regardles of two or three-dimensional modes, the draw-ings and models experiment with varying notions of containment.

“In the locational model, stored memories are the materials of cognition...”

The Paradoxical Limitless Container“The collection thus appears as a mode of control and containment insofar as it is a mode of generation and series. And this function of containment must be taken into account as much as any simple Freudian model when we note the great popularity of collecting objects that are themselves containers… The finite boundaries these objects afford are played against the infinite possibility of their col-lection, and analogously, their finite use value when filled is played against the measureless emptiness that marks their new aesthetic function.”

- Susan Stewart, On Longing

VIEW FROM MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE VIEW FROM MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE

500 500 1000 1500 2000 m0

1:50000

SHOHADA (MARTYRS) SQ.

EVIN PRISON

BEHESHT-E-ZAHRA

AZADI SQUARE

GOLESTAN PALACE

PARDISAN PARKSMILAD TOWER

ABBAS ABAD

BANK-E-MELLI

TEATR-E SHAHR

NIAVARAN PALACE

QAZVIN SQUARE

IMAM KHOMEINI SQ.

FORMERLY JALEH SQ.

FORMERLY TOOPKHANEH SQ.

REVOLUTION ROAD

JOMHOURI-E ESLAMI SQ..

ISLAMIC DOCUMENTATION CENTER

EX-PARLIAMENT HOUSE LIBRARY, MUSEUM, andDOCUMENTATION CENTER BAHERSTAN GARDEN

BAGH E-MELLI

SHAHR GARDEN

IRANIAN CULTURAL HERITAGEORGANIZATION (ICHO)

TEHRAN SENATE HOUSE

POSSIBLE SITE: FORGOTTEN TOWER FOUNDATION IN LALEH PARK

MNEMOTECHNIC DRAWINGS: BUILDING MEMORY ASSOCIATIONS


Mnemotechnic Study (1:50000) Tehran, Iran

“…I recognize a word not only by the images it evokes but by a whole complex of feelings that image arouses. It’s hard to express … it’s not a matter of vision or hear-ing but some over-all sense I get. Usually I experience a word’s taste and weight, and I don’t have to make an effort to remember it—the word seems to recall itself. But it’s difficult to describe. What I sense is something oily slipping through my hand… or I’m aware of a slight tickling in my left hand caused by a mass of tiny, lightweight points. When that happens I simply remember, without having to make the at-tempt…” (Mind of a Mnemonist, Record of May 22, 1939, p.30).

Mnemotechnic Index: A Terrain for Collection & Recollection

51

MEMORIES REQUIRE LOCATIONSOn Collecting

“Re-collection was essentially a task of composition, literally bringing together matters found in the various places where they are stored to be reassembled in a new place.”

- Mary Carruthers, The Medieval Craft of Memory

“Souvenirs,” or memories collected from disparate places and times, can recall experiences that might otherwise fall into obscurity…This new whole, the collection, becomes a hermetic world isolated from “real time and space; it freezes time. Collecting is inherently a culture of fragments, a sticking together of material bits that stand as metonyms and metaphors for the world they may refer to but are not. …The collection is a “go-between,” according to Krysztof Pomian, be-tween the visible world of objects and the invisible world of meaning.”’

- Pat Morton, Museum of Jurassic Technology: Wrapper

51

MEMORY IS BUILT ON ASSSOCIATIONSThe Mind of a MnemonistSolomon V. Shereshevsky was a journalist and active Mnemonist in the 1920’s. His uniquely synesthetic memory and profound ability to recall memory was studied by neuropsychologist Alexander Luria for over 20 years. Records of these accounts are documented in his book, The Mind of a Mnemonist.

Take the word egg... It was so easy to lose sight of it; now I make it a larger image, and when I lean it up against the wall of a building, I see to it that the place is lit up by having a street lamp nearby… I don’t put things in dark passageways any more… much better if there’s some light around, it’s easier to spot then.

- Record of May 22, 1939

Formerly, in order to remember a thing, I would have to summon up an image of the whole scene. Now all I have to do is take some detail I’ve decided on in advance that will signify the whole image. Say I’m given the word horseman. All it takes now is an image of a foot in spur… now If I’m given the word, I’d see something rather like a store and an entranceway with a bit of something white showing from inside—that’s all, and I’d remember the word…. I try just to single out one detail I’ll need in order to remember a word.

- Record of December 1935

…I recognize a word not only by the images it evokes but by a whole complex of feelings that image arouses. It’s not a matter of vi-sion or hearing but some over-all sense... What I sense is something oily slipping through my hand… or I’m aware of a slight tickling in my left hand. When that happens I simply remember, without hav-ing to make the attempt…

- Record of May 22, 1939

contain the Latin word continere (hinder, contain, shut in; keep, hold, hang together; secure, maintain, sustain)

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KURT SCHWITTERS, MERZBAU

TRACES OF MEMORY: Seeing the UnseenThe Simultaneity of Hiding and Revealing“Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see” (Magritte).

Found objects are encapsulated within the growing architecture of Schwit-ters’ apartment. The artifacts remain hidden but their trace is revealed by the nature of their containers. Schwitters’ built his constructions into his resi-dences... The ceilings and walls were covered with three dimensional shapes and countless nooks and grottos were filed with a variety of objects -- “spoils and relics” (personal items Schwitters stole from friends and acquaintanc-es)...Schwitters considered the Merzbau on principle, an uncompleted work that by it’s very nature, continued to grow and change constantly (Cole).

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MEMORIES ARE BUILT ON ASSOCIATIONS, BUILDINGS THAT ARE BUILT BY MEMORIES

Kurt Schwitters’ MerzbauCicero’s Memory PalaceChapel of the Chimes, Julia MorganNoah’s Ark - as a ‘composition site’ because of its familiarity- containing many useful compartments with a straightforward route among them, “a sort of foundational map to use in arranging your materials as you gather them into the location of your new composition from the networks of your experiences” (Carruther)Gerhard Richter’s Atlas ‘an apparatus of remembrance’Archimedes’ PalimpsestMemento Mori: ‘The viewer of Renaissance art is systematically placed outside the frame of experience’ (The Medium is the Message, p.53)René Magritte: Multiplicity- multiple ways of seeing simultaneously‘Finding space within the surface of a wall’ (Christ)Law of MeanderTreptow Crematorium, Berlin – columns as carriers of lightLibrary of Water, Iceland – columns as containers of waterNazi Documentation Center, Günther Domenig, NuremburgHouse of Terror, Attila F. Kovács, BudapestMuseum of Jurassic Technology: Wrapper - “It is a building ‘built’ more by the things that it holds than by the walls that contain them” (Mangurian & Ray)Objects of Desire, Susan Stewart - “The collection is not constructed by its elements; rather, it comes to exist by means of its principle of organization. If that principle is bounded at the onset of the collection, the collection will be finite, or at least potentially finite. If that principle tends toward infinity or series itself, the collection will be open-ended” Downpour Resurfacing - Repetition CompulsionSufi Traditions in Persian Architecture - Positive Space SystemsGarden Niavaran, Tehran, IranThe premodern encyclopedia as a sort of memory-book- “reading gathered up in some orderly arrangement for the purpose of quick, secure recollection in connection with making a new composition” (Carruther) Diller + Scofidio’s EyebeamOubli de Reserve: the basement - a kind of ‘backup forgetting’[...]

PRECEDENTS: CICERO’S MEMORY PALACE, CHAPEL OF THE CHIMES, KURT SCHWITTERS’ MERZBAU, THE LAW OF MEANDER...

LUIGI RUSSOLO, THE FUTURIST’S CINEMA

synesthesia noun. the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.

Precedents: A Terrain for Collection & Recollection

5353

CHAPEL OF THE CHIMES, OAKLAND, CA

reverie noun. a state of being pleasantly lost in one’s thoughts; a daydream: a knock on the door broke her reverie | I slipped into reverie.

THE LAW OF MEANDER In Reverie “Each view, fragmentary as it was, opened obliquely onto another and then still others. And if the opening was not toward a new set-ting, it was toward a new aspect of a setting that had been seen previously” (Leatherbarrow). Something that is so wonderful about the Chapel of the Chimes is the ability to get lost. A series of interconnected rooms branch off of a central axis- like tributaries of a river, each imbuing its own spatial qualities. The concept of circulation is clear, but provisional, and fostered is the freedom of exploration: the landscape to navigate freely and with ease- to meander as one would in a Picturesque Garden, or in a Miesian landscape.

LE CORBUSIER, MUSEUM FOR UNLIMITED GROWTH

Chapel of the Chimes was founded in 1909 as a crematory and columbarium in Oakland, California. The present building dates largely from a 1928 redevelopment based on the designs of the architect Julia Morgan.

GARDEN NIAVARAN, TEHRAN,

54


The visible world was made to correspond to the world invisible and there is nothing in this world but is a symbol of something in that other world. From Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali, Ihya Al-Ghazzali the Mystic (eleventh century)

1

BUILDING THE PALACE: CONTAINING THE MEMORY CICERO’S MEMORY PALACE AND THE LOCATIONAL METHOD

Golestān (Rose) Palace; “Kakheh Golestān” is the former royal Qajar complex. The oldest of the historic monuments in Tehran, the Golestan Palace belongs to a group of royal buildings that were once enclosed within the mud-thatched walls of Tehran’s Historic citadel. During the Pahlavi era (1925–1979) Golestan Palace was used for formal royal receptions and the Pahlavi dynasty built their own palace at Niavaran. The most important ceremonies held in the Palace during the Pahlavi era were the coronation of Reza Khan (r. 1925-1941) in Takht-e Marmar and the coronation of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (r. 1941-deposed 1979) in the Museum Hall. Between 1925 and 1945 a large portion of the buildings of the palace were destroyed on the orders of Reza Shah who believed that the centuries old Qajar palace should not hinder the growth of a modern city.

BUILDING THE PALACE Cicero’s Memory Palace; “The Method Of Loci”

Building the Palace: Containing the Memory

55

What you experience are the memories, but they are hiding- enigmatic to an outsider looking in.

Our memory is built on associations. The Memory Palace, or method of loci (plural of Latin locus for place or location) is a mnemonic device that relies on memorized spatial relationships to collect, order and recollect memory. A series of spaces (real, fictitious, or both) are cognitively conceived for the deposition of memories; an object, image, or eidetic trait bears the associa-tion. Medieval mnemonic crafts relied heavily on this pairing of word and image as aids for learning. In an act of recollection, one would simply take a ‘mental walk’ through the spaces in order to retrieve them from where they were placed. It is critical to use eidetic images: abbreviating and abstracting from them the vital details that would allow him to generalize the whole.

Formerly, in order to remember a thing, I would have to summon up an image of the whole scene. Now all I have to do is take some detail I’ve decided on in advance that will signify the whole image. Say I’m given the word horseman. All it takes now is an image of a foot in spur… now If I’m given the word, I’d see something rather like a store and an entranceway with a bit of something white showing from inside—that’s all, and I’d remember the word…. I try just to single out one detail I’ll need in order to remember a word (Mind of a Mnemonist, Record of December 1935, p.42).

The real purpose of all these mental constructs was to provide storage spaces for the myriad concepts that make up the sum of our human knowledge. To everything that we wish to remember, wrote Ricci, we should give an image, and to every one of these images we should as-sign a position where it can repose peacefully until we are ready to reclaim it by an act of memory.

- The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, Jonathan Spence


a terrain for collection & recollection

Documents

individual remembering

collective reremembering

modes of remembering

collective composition

struction of memorytable

collection recollectionfor

collection recollecting

archive exhibition