“New memory”— A Community Center

Wenhan Li

My building is a water tower, which is located in an abandoned meat processing factory area. Specifically located at the junction of the factory and a residential area. As to my definition of HOST. Just like the server in computational semantics, buildings also store memories through materials.

Like Heidegger’s “hammer” example in Being and Time, when the factory was closed, the original operating state was broken, so the workers noticed this state and began to use some materials in the factory. As time went by, abandonment became the norm, so the whole area now remained silent. Therefore, the focus of this project is how to break this silence with materials.

After many investigations, I deconstructed the material and space of the entire area into four materials and three spatial forms. And I build a map to demonstrate their characteristics and combination.

Discarded bricks and tiles, which I call “one-dimensional” materials, are combined into a two-dimensional wall. With the increase of the material dimension, the material acquires a new state, attracts attention, and triggers their memories.

When I was thinking about the window position in this project, I intentionally treat the window scenery as a non-physical material and combine it with space. This plan aims to let the community residents once again perceive these materials around them and then see the silent water tower and the factory area it represents. In the end, the residents can recall their memories again.