| Title |
A Study on the Commemorative Space of Memorial Designs Today in Urban Public Places |
| DOI |
http://doi.org/10.14774/JKIID.2022.31.6.086 |
| Keywords |
Commemorative Space; Public Space; Memorial; Persistence of Memory |
| Abstract |
This study investigates the characters of memorial designs today in urban daily places such as plazas, parks, and streets. The study analyzes the memorial designs in views of commemorative spaces, commemorative activities, and commemorative images. The study examines the designs of six memorials which are Nazi Book Burning Memorial, The Dutch Holocaust Memorial of Names, Bologna Shoah Memorial, The New York City AIDS Memorial, Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial, and Memorial for the Victims of the Nazi Euthanasia. From the analysis of the cases, the study finds followings; First, the commemorative spaces are formed around the memorials which are located in the public places, where people walk through. The memorials are often designed in the centers of the plazas due to accessibility and openness while the memorials in streets are designed in linear shapes along pedestrian pathes. Visitors meet the memorials by chance and find that they are already in the memorial spaces.
Second, the commemorative activities are conducted around the memorials where visitors appreciate, sympathize, and memorize the historic incidents. Information on the incidents is suggested in brief, connoted, and literary words.
Visitors, as they voluntarily follow the clues, hints, and literary metaphors in the memorials, recognize the meaning of the places and evoke sympathies about the historic tragedies. Third, the commemorative images are not often clearly defined since they are carried in walls and surfaces of public places. They are expressed in abstract and suggestive ways as well as in changeable images, thus the memorials do not overwhelm daily urban places. Visitors recognize memorials in the public places that symbolize the incidences and they interpret meanings that the memorials intend to express. The study concludes that the memorial designs today coincide with everyday lives and suggest the persistence of memories of the past, which are ever evolutionary memorial culture in today. |