Linking memory and space

Architecture conference set here

The relationship between architecture and memory will be examined at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture West Central Regional Conference, to be hosted by the School of Architecture Oct. 2-4.

Assistant Professors Eleni Bastea and Gia Daskalakis (the latter directs the undergraduate program in architecture) are co-chairing the multidisciplinary conference, which is expected to include 65-70 presentations of papers and design projects. Themes range from "public memory" to "art and memory" to "cultural memory." The presentations will examine topics from both international and historical perspectives and include analysis of commemorative architecture, architecture in literature and architecture created in politically or culturally charged settings.

"The theme is meant to examine the role of memory in the making, understanding and teaching of architecture," Bastea said. "While architecture provides the stage on which we enact our lives, memory creates a special relationship with space, holding on to the essence of it, the best and the worst."

Faculty from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany and the United States are expected to attend the conference. Individual presentations range from a monument for the bicentennial of the French Revolution to "remnants of slave spaces" to a pilgrimage through Old and New Jerusalem. All conference sessions are open to the campus community. For more information, call 935-6200.

The four keynote speeches, which are free and open to the public, will be delivered in conjunction with the architecture school's Monday Night Lecture Series.

Jo Noero, the Ruth and Norman Moore Professor of Architecture and director of the Graduate Program in Architecture, is among the keynote speakers. Other University faculty giving presentations include Eric Mumford, Ph.D., assistant professor of architecture; Jacqueline Tatom and Sheona Thomson, visiting assistant professors of architecture; Lutz Koepnick, Ph.D., assistant professor of Germanic languages and literatures in Arts and Sciences; and Harriet Stone, Ph.D., associate professor of Romance languages and literatures in Arts and Sciences.