Buildings are physical objects, materiality, containers of people’s lifes.
People remember. They are the breathing soul of buildings. They remember through images composed by the physical objects.
In The Image of the City Kevin Lynch said that the generalized mental picture of the exterior physical world held by an individual is the product both of immediate sensation and of the memory of past experience.
Therefore, buildings, while they don’t actually remember, are reminders. They are physical representations of the history of a city. They are witnesses of historical events. Buildings are portrayals of people’s memories.
The architectural memory of a city is constructed by people’s perception of its architecture.
In order for a building to be an urban artefact of the city, it needs to evoke memories of an important historical event. That can only be done if the building physically witnessed that event.
The Skopje2014 project, as shown through this research, has an ideological goal to promote an invented history of the city of Skopje. It wishes to present historical events that have never happened and to forge history. The project is decomposing, i.e. erasing the real course of past events and constructing historical narratives that have never happened. One of the used mediums is architecture, because remembering requires physical reminders. The paradox lies in the creation of real physical reminders of imaginary historical events.
The construction of new memories is simply a tool, used for the deconstruction of the existing ones. The old ones have been erased, since they no more have physical representations and the invention on new ones has failed. Consequently, these buildings that aren’t reminders of any past events, are only physical objects and not urban artefacts. They are only materiality and materiality is temporary. Its change is inevitable.
With the project Skopje 2014, as with other past events, Skopje is going through one more self-destructive episode. It has ‘benjamine bottoned’. Once again, it is back to age one and has to learn how to keep balance. So how does it proceed?
Unraveling the abortive nature of the Skopje2014 project does not mean that it should be ignored as a part of the physical tissue of the city. By erasing it mentally (or even physically), one would be doing the exact same thing as the project itself, i.e. denying a real part of the history of Skopje.
Skopje2014 is a representation. Not of what it intended to be, but of exactly what it tried to erase. Its physical presence stands for its attempt to deconstruct architectural memory, thus its self-denial. The acknowledgment of its physical presence in the city is very necessary. By accepting the new reinvented state of Skopje, the city will benefit the construction of the following identity-making layers.
Because architecture is the chosen medium by the Skopje2014 project, the architect’s role should be rethought accordingly to the latest events. The architect now is the one who has the knowledge and the tools to handle the physical products from this project. Therefore, the current city must be part of his education.
The architectural tour, given in this thesis, will not be applicable anymore in two years, when all the ongoing constructions have been finished. One could not stand in front of the building of the electric power companies EVN and ELEM and refer to it as the first curtain wall façade example in Macedonia, because the curtain wall will not be there anymore. The tour giving concept should be rethought. Chronology will not be the answer anymore. The building then will be a collage of more histories. It will have a plan from the International Style and a façade from the Skopje2014 time. Accordingly, the concept of being a collage will be more applicable than chronology. The same applies for the history courses taught at the architecture faculties. The role of architecture itself has to be rethought.
Moreover, this research has been done by an architect using architectural knowledge and tools.
Skopje’s state and Skopje2014 project’s effects on it need to be examined by professionals from many other fields. When it comes to identity, all of society’s layers should be observed. Historians, anthropologists, archaeologies, sociologist etc. need to be involved. That is the necessary approach for accepting the latest self-destructive events of mixing ideology with creativity and to guide the course of the city’s future.
The content of (De)contructing Architectural Memory has not been updated since the master thesis project was finished in 2015, when the Skopje2014 project was still ongoing. However, a further development on this string of thought can be found in my article The Borrowed City, published in 2020.
(De)contructing Architectural Memory is also part of the publication Redesign.
Photo by Aleksandar Kyng