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108 Ephemeral Fragments - A Poetic Ontology of Yesterday

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Date

2024

Authors

Supervisor

Burgess, Andrew
McCabe, Micheal

Item type

Thesis

Degree name

Master of Architecture (Professional)

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Publisher

Auckland University of Technology

Abstract

Ephemeral Fragments explores the elusive narratives embedded within remembered spaces framed by Feng Shui principles through research, model making and poetry. This design-led research project explores how childhood memories shape our connection to the world, using Feng Shui principles to examine my early life experiences. Through a mixed-methods approach combining drawing, model-making, and poetry, the project uncovers insights into the fragmented narratives of my personal childhood recollections and the poetics of nostalgic spaces. By embracing an interdisciplinary and non-anthropocentric approach, memories are utilized to cultivate a deeper sensitivity towards the non-human aspects of space. This thesis uses the debris of my memories to question; how can we use Feng Shui to explore memories of architectural spaces to reveal the poetics of remembered places? The Bagua Map; a Feng Shui compass is used as a prompt to extract memories and the architectural elements engaged in them. The fragmented memories are categorised into nine sections of the Bagua map; abundance, recognition, relationships, family, health, creativity, knowledge, career and travel. As a Chinese born Aotearoa citizen with a superstitious upbringing, Feng Shui has been integral to my memories of built environments. Models of specific fragments of these spaces at varying degrees of detail, scale and refinement capture fractions of the architectural spaces that contain the narrative of my life. The fragments are then reimagined for the final models, where the fragmented memories of each of the nine sections are enmeshed; creating structures in which multiple timelines coexist. These nine models express the unexpected personal discoveries that were uncovered while allowing memory to lead the design process. Through this iterative process, I explore the metaphysical dimensions of space, where memories fabricate a new materiality of built environments. Recreating architectural fragments of the past uncovers the spiritual topography of memory, where the tangibility of built environments converges with the intangibility of recollection. These reconstructions—moments frozen in time—hold the resonance of what has been, illuminating the lustre of forgotten places; the life force within fragments of yesterday and all the yesterdays. These fragments tell a story of the places I have been.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10292/19412

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