WEEK 10

CITIES AND MEMORY

This was an interesting lecture which revolved around the idea of keeping "memories" of an old town, and re-using the old towns features in a new town. The following are topics which stood out to me the most:

Memory and Identity
The importance and interest of preserving the identity of our cities:
- Heritage listing
- Planning and legistlation which can impose ties to the transformation of the urban environment in order to presreve character

Heritage and Identity of Cities: Avoiding Transformations
Some cities have laws against making changes to the urban infrastructure of their city. This is sometimes good for tourism and for foreigners, however avoiding transformations and upgrades to buildings/elements within a city is not always a good thing. Technology continues to improve, and buildings with no air-conditioning for example will mean people/ local residents may not want to live there and will move to different areas.

Rebuilding Cities
Darwin, NT: Destroyed by cyclones, locals rebuild their city based on old memories.
Tirana, Albania: Socialist city with a communisy regime holding ITALIAN influences --> there is no identiy and no connection with local architecture, as a result, grafitti/artwork is painted on old buildings to provide a new idenity and to display their culture.
How can we modify our city and keep its memories at the same time?

REFLECTION

When visiting another country which holds different cultures and values, it will be difficult to find a sense of place. I find it interesting to see how historical occurances have influences the values and culture of residents and the design of spaces and places. I think our city of Brisbane is somewhat struggling to exhibit a strong sense of place, I feel we tend to follow trends of other major cities in Australia such as Melbourne and Sydney, where Brisbane has a small unique presence in the country. I feel it is a city that is accepting of all types of design and cultures, however we are a shy city that has not yet found its confidence. I don't believe Brisbane has done a good enough job at keep its past, in contrast to the city of Melbourne where there is a strong visual story of the growth of the city through the abundance of hertitage buildings, and traditional transport for example. I would have loved for Brisbane to keep alot more of its past, rather than following to new technological trends with the mainstream cities. We have done O.K but could have been better.... I suppose sadly, its too late now.

PROJECT 3

Relationship between building and context
Focus on one small portion of the city
Use theories learnt in project 2 for report