A critique of Viennese attitudes towards architecture preservation, heritage and monumentality through notions of lucid dreaming and oppressed memories

Preservation, Heritage and Monumentality

Vienna - the city that charms through a blend of imperial traditions, music, and grandeur monumental landscape. The majestic capital is overwhelmed by relics and symbols preserved under an immaculate monumentality, creating a dreamlike atmosphere where we lose our perception of time and place. The perfection of the city masks the oppressed memories of destruction and decay. The project explores how can architecture express and embody the past in the present, what should we remember, and what should we forget?

Through the notions of preservation and heritage, the intervention seeks to look at expressing the notions of lucid dreaming and transformation of the Secession to a propelling monument through subtracting elements from the memory of the site and the architecture. Key protagonists of the project are the Artists of the Association and the International Union of Psychological Science intersecting in exploring the realm of the subconscious and lucid dreaming. The proposal primer function remains open as a gallery, integrating artist studios, cafe, libraries and study spaces/private rooms.

The Viennese attitude towards heritage hides tense anxiety in its remembrance of the past, only projecting the dreams of the sterile condition of the architecture throughout the city. Vienna doesn’t accept its recent history or doesn’t want to be part of the present? Replicating the original appearance after the war and erasing all forms of decay, the city erases any trace of past trauma. Is the city locus seeing it’s memories as a hallucinating history? What would be the consequences of being frozen in time in the future? as the in a world of continuous transformation.