I intend to use the idea of synaethesia and a phenomenological understanding of space to begin to connect the idea of ritual and memory and practiced space in an architectural construct. The relation of the object to the object, the body to the object, and the body to the body set the field of spatial relationships. These relationships change over time. Through understanding these changes one can begin to create spaces of meaning.


The rituals surrounding death, particularly the process of cremation, begin to alter the perception of space, as bodies form new relationships. As living (animated) bodies become dead (inanimate) bodies, they begin to form new relationships with those still living and influence the relationships between those who are living. This shift is perceived as the living bodies are made more aware if their occupied space. The dead body becomes a fragment of its former animated state. This inanimate fragment becomes a new object which is involved in a specific series of ritual practices, from spreading the ashes in the ocean or sending them into space, to displaying them in an urn on a book shelf at home.


It is crucial to reinterpret the past, to work in and create a memory for the present and future. In designing this memory, one must account for the body, its functions, its senses, and its rituals. As these rituals change over time, so must the architecture which they inhabit. The memory and history of the transformations of the ritual contained within the ritual over time should be contained within the architecture.


In building, there is a relationship between the construction of the building/its practiced space and the occupied building. The scaffolding used to construct or repair a building becomes a wrapping of the practiced object in another practice. The precocity and variations of this re-occurrence of wrapping depend on the history of the space and its decomposition over time.

The relationship of the body in the space of the scaffolding to the bodies in the building and to the outside becomes a mediator of spaces. It is both inside and out; it forms a porous boundary between the fixed and the fluctuating. The visual connection between inside and outside and the practices that occur in each now become apparent to the observer. The new space offers a fragment to be understood as part of the interior and exterior. The experience of looking through the screen to reveal a silhouette gives a level of understanding of the other. The new structures are based on the memory of the work done to the permanent buildings; they begin to take the memory of the scaffolding and incorporate it permanently. New additions serve as an added layer of information and an added layer of experience and memory. Through the building up of these fragments of memories, the meaning and understanding of the space will begin to change.

In understanding space as the fragmentation of memory formed through the overlaying of processes, on the process of ruination/decomposition of the constructed both physical and spiritual, one can begin to perceive the layers creating the experienced space. This reveals the relationship between the connections remaining and those revealed through the process of decomposition/forgetting over time.