ACSA 112th Annual Meeng: Disrupters on the Edge | March 14-16, 2024 | Vancouver, BC 781 PROJECT Keywords: memorial, symbolism, social justice, beginning design “To fuse objects and space with the past, a cultural backdrop must be in place to serve as a structure for juxtaposion. This does not mean that we simply mix together the old and new, but carefully commingle past and present through formal gestures and narrave.” —Walter Hood, Sites of Memory: Perspectives on Architecture and Race 1 MEMORIAL OVER MONUMENT It is important for students to confront sites that provoke crical discussions around ownership, polics, race, history, and basic human rights.Students explored the intersecons of history, symbolism, form, and design within the context of a former site of enslavement registered as a naonal historic place2. An organizaon which provides individuals over the age of 50 with opportunies for community and learning is interested in expanding their facilies on their exisng site.The program, although client conceived, was the subject of a discussion with the students as to what programmac characteriscs are ap- propriate for this site. The problem is rife with dichotomies: its horrific past and landmarked status, and the queson of how to approach the memorializing of this place. The recognizable image of the ar- chitecture is what makes it both a valued historic place yet also a painful reminder of oppression. The framing of the design problem was formed through histori- cal analysis of the 1700-acre Sunny Slope site (Figure 1) as a site of enslavement of men, women, and children. Students analyzed the exisng site to understand how formal strategies were used to establish power over the landscape through central axes and visual hierarchies3. The complex reality of the historical context requires thoughul consideraon. As Zumthor expresses in Thinking Architecture, the projects would need to dialogue in a meaningful way with the exisng architecture and landscape, “for if the intervenon is to find its place, it must make us see what already exists in a new light.”⁴. CONCEPTUAL RESPONSES When designing the expansion to the site, students developed a range of formal dialogues with the exisng Greek-revival architecture, deciding whether to preserve or interrupt the es- tablished hierarchy (Figure 2). Although many students tested the idea of demolion or moving off site, ulmately the decision was to not erase the history from the site as “erasure allows peo- ple to forget”5 but to find a way to remember it in a new context. In response to the historic power the architecture held over the landscape, most students chose to challenge the formal axis and view, understood as represenng and perpetuang ideas of a social and racial hierarchy (Figure 3). Other students sought to connect more directly to how the enslaved worked the land, advocang that the landscape embodies the lives of forced labor on the site. The public space and view around the exisng house are maintained but augmented and/or reprogrammed as a con- templave space for public use (Figure 4). Students embraced the concept that their act of making needed “to enshrine the knowledge of the cultural past for the sake of future genera- ons.”6 This played out in diverse ways, some of which consisted of less formal/hierarchical experiences and more personal/indi- vidual experiences. Designs included long views, mulple ways to navigate, intersal spaces to slow and quiet architecture rather than one that constantly communicates to the visitor. One project (Figure 5) places bent bars as part of a gesture on the site, stretching over the site and requiring visitors to walk across the yard. The geometry of the bars implies new centralies, and Monuments, Memorials, Landmarks, and Symbols: Conflicng Values in the American Narrave GORHAM BIRD Auburn University MARK ALAN BLUMBERG Auburn University MARY ENGLISH Auburn University JENNIFER PINDYCK Auburn University