Memory, Materials and the Built Environment

Abstract This essay rethinks the interrelation between materials and memory, asking: how do our encounters with materials in the built environment confront us with the past and what is the role of memory in such encounters? It argues that encounters with building materials constitute confrontations with the past, as we observe pastness in the built environment, instinctively undertake relative dating, and, as a result, temporally locate ourselves in relation to the space and the space in relation to ourselves. Integrating a key strand of architectural theory – attention to building materials and the material environment – into memory studies, the essay also proposes that the meanings of building materials are mediated by memory and that building materials themselves mediate (cultural) memory. By focusing on materials rather than events or architectural styles, it exposes the multiple and multifaceted cultural memory processes inherent in our everyday engagement with materials.