Contemporary landscape architecture design as a regenerator of the collective memory

Abstract

The space of the urban landscape is a palimpsest of stratified and overlapping memories. It is created by its inhabitants, by the moments of their lives and, above all, by their memory. Several authors have focused on the question of the relation between memory and space, referring to its importance in the construction and in the perception of the landscape and, consequently, in its appropriation and living experience. Starting with the discussion of several theoretical models – memory as a process of reconstruction from socially elaborated references (Halbwachs); memory as a modulator of landscapes (Gaspar); memory as a rediscovery process of what we already own (Schama); places of memory as a remainder and as perpetuation (Nora); places of memory as places in situ and in visu (Nys and Mosser) – and the use of practical references, where the collective memory is the concept of the urban space design and construction – namely the World Trade Center Memorial, by Peter Walker – it is the aim of this paper to present the construction of the landscape space as a collective memory of a people, through the contemporary landscape architecture design.

With this approach we intend to defend the existence of places of memory, not only as historical places, but as places of experience, response and emotion, result of the accumulation of visible and invisible traces of its users, and resulting from individual and collective memories.

This paper focus a case-study placed in Alcáçovas (South of Portugal), close to the Palace of Henriques where the first world act of globalization was made between Portugal and Spain, in 1479, defining a partition of the world between these two powers. This small commonwealth contains traces of habits and traditions that have been perpetuated in time, consolidating into a symbiosis between the territory and the life that leads us to the identification of the place character essence. This site is inserted on the urban fabric fringe and has got a unique architectural heritage dated from the 16th century and nowadays is totally lost in this Mediterranean landscape. Throughout the contemporary landscape architecture design the study of this case brings to discussion on how to connect this place with the urban fabric; how to establish a consistent corridor between several architectural heritage elements; how to regenerate an abandoned historic site and how to preserve the place character; how to perpetuate the collective memory and identity of the landscape through the preservation. In the course of the holistic interpretation paradigm, the construction of the urban open space is made from the collective memory of a commonwealth. Our goal is to make these spaces relational and referential, so that the land will not forget the culture and the identity of a people and its landscape.