Abstract:
Recent events in the Canterbury region have caused not only extensive damage to the built environment, but have also had a profound effect on the lives and psychology of many within Christchurch. A crisis of memory is becoming apparent as a result of the trauma that the city has experienced over the last two years. The architectural and urban fabric is of paramount importance to the residents of the city, as it is relied upon to orientate them, identify with, and read the past of the city through the layers of architecture and space which form its urban memory. With so many of these landmarks having been erased, can the act of preserving some of these buildings support and mitigate these issues? This investigation explores the links between the collective and urban memory and their architectural implications in a society in which has experienced upheaval. Rather than simply becoming an anthropological or memorial space, the proposed regeneration of a historic building will expose the damage to the architecture that the earthquake caused, while still allowing it to be a functional space with an economically viable program. The proposal will focus on Knox Church, leading to questions on what the role of the Church might become in an increasingly secular society, and how it might be utilised to be supportive of the more needy in society and the community. Finally exploration into how buildings, through form and materiality, can be said to have memory. “And perhaps architecture has always wanted to be a theatre of memory, wrote Umberto Eco ... While some memories nourish us, others may kill the spirit, leading us to the dark labyrinths of a disabling past. What, then, comes in their stead?2”