How can processes of replicating a city’s immediate context through memory and history produce refined architectural forms?

The Thesis aims to raise questions such as what the limits of replica with respect to what metaphysical meanings are can be transmitted or forgotten. Through the transmutation of metaphysical meanings what should and can be remembered or forgotten. The overall aim is to stimulate pathological monuments with the context, history, and memory of the site to promote urban growth and form a propelling monument which invokes a dialogue between the memory of the site and the proposed monument.

The theory behind these ideas stems initially from Aldo Rossi’s concepts of the Monument, which discuss the metaphysical meaning behind the physical artifact. The ideas are complimented by Descartes and David Lownthal who postulate that there is more meaning in an idea of an artifact than the original one, through the perceived ideas and memory which we assign it. Taking this further, Plato and Socrates liken memory to impressions and casting, assigning more value of in the replica than original.

The process of this project involved using the memory of the city and architect to abstract the key context of the site into a scheme. For this project in Milan, it involved using the Duomo di Milano, Palazzo Reale, Palazzo Arrengario and Palazzo d’INA. These are a mixture of historic buildings through till the twentieth century with Rationalist and Novecento styles. The project used the replication and simplification of the plans of these buildings to create conceptual models which went on to inform my own plans, elevations, and vertical massing. The outcome is a scheme informed by its immediate context, using key concepts taken from the plans, such as colonnades, courtyards, and secondary piazzas. These informed the design to create an extension of the city, through the project. The programme is a community engagement centre, focussing on how the commune of Milan can interact with its citizens, providing an assembly hall/ auditorium as well as interior and exterior civic spaces. The site has a history of being the seat of power of the city, ecclesiastical, royal, and then fascist. The ideas is to replicate this programme, but from a bottom down approach, creating a building for the citizens with open access as oppose to being a symbol

The façade is clad in a repetitive concrete panel system, designed using the conceptual models. The aggregate for these panels is made up of the building which is being demolished. The scheme is of a monumental scale, following the rhythm and height of the Palazzo Arrengario an existing building which makes up the scheme. The project has created a contemporary monument which is informed by the historical and cultural context of its site.