Memories and Performance

Abstract

This study intends to explore one aspect of contemporary architecture, that is, the tension between the universal and the particular. It is the tension between the emphasis onmodernist abstractionism and technology and the concerns about nature, history, and human experiences, both individual and collective. Basically, it is the notions of identity and place. In this line of thought, the discussions on place usually are anchored on the formal and spatial level, which carries symbolic significance. However, architecture has a greater impact on human life in subtle ways, that is, through the ways in which a design operates in relationshipto the social and physical environment. It is what I would call the performative aspect of architecture. How can we establish a mode of reading of the notion of place by focusing on the performative aspect of architecture? This paper examines examples of works related to the notion of place, both design work and architectural texts from the heroic period of Modernism to the contemporary period, including those of Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, Paul Rudolph, to those of critical regionalists. This juxtaposition between textual and formal analysis aims to arrive at a critical understanding of how the cases perform and, in turn, engage the place. Overall, this study hopes to contribute to the intersection between history and theory of architecture and design, as well as to the notion of place and identity inarchitecture.