Memory has long been one of architecture’s most essential and foundational aspects. It is the invisible yet palpable medium through which space acquires meaning, continuity, and identity. It manifests as traces, material patina, and ritual repetition; as personal recollection and collective monument; as both preservation and transformation. From the persistence of vernacular forms and materials to the commemoration of memorial landscapes, architecture continuously embodies memories.
The current issue of ArchiDOCT invites doctoral candidates, early-career researchers, and academics to reflect on the concept of memory and its connection to architecture and the built environment. This theme arises from the recognition that memory is a crucial dimension of the built environment, its design, theory, and experience. Architecture is not only an instrument for shaping space but also a repository of temporal layers through which cultural, material, and cognitive dimensions intersect.
Within architectural discourse, memory has been a recurring concern, serving not only as a bridge between the past and the present, but also informing the preservation of heritage, the memorialisation of historical events, and the transmission of tradition across generations. At the same time, memory is implicated in processes of transformation, reinterpretation, and erasure present in colonisation processes, state power and historical bias. However, it also plays an equal role in dismantling colonial systems, challenging their legacies, and making space for diverse histories and cultures. Architecture, in this sense, becomes a site where remembering and forgetting coexist – where temporal continuity and discontinuity are materialised in form, place, and time.
This issue aims to explore memory as a complex matter that transcends the disciplinary boundaries of architecture. Recent developments in cognitive sciences, neuroscience, environmental psychology, and data analysis provide new frameworks for understanding how memory is embodied, perceived, and encoded in spatial experience. Likewise, theoretical approaches from philosophy, cultural studies, and heritage research expand the conceptual scope of architectural memory, linking it to broader questions of identity, affect, and temporality.
ArchiDOCT aims to foster a dialogue that situates memory not as a static reference to the past but as a dynamic mechanism through which architecture operates in time. By engaging with memory, authors are invited to reconsider how architectural knowledge is constructed, transmitted, and transformed. In doing so, this issue also acknowledges the epistemological implications of memory: how remembering and forgetting influence architectural thought, representation, and design practice.
We encouraged contributions that approached the theme of memory from diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives, including both practice-based and research-led investigations. Of particular interest are studies that illuminate the role of memory in design processes, cognitive and perceptual engagement with the built environment, and the formation of architectural meaning.
The first paper, “Memorializing Biophilia: Architecture’s Epigenetic Impact Through Nature Connections”, by Dr Tuwanda Green, adjunct professor at Virginia Tech and Board member of the Biophilic Institute, explores the intersections of memory, biophilia, and epigenetics to understand how built environments influence human health. Through Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology and E.O. Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis, this examination explores how architecture mediates our embodied connection to nature, proposing a thought-provoking premise that through nature-integrated design, we can modify epigenetic markers and potentially reverse patterns of nature disconnection through transgenerational embodied experiences.
Dr Eleonora D’Ascenzi, a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Florence and Project Manager for PNRR, PE11, SPOKE 2, and Denise de Spirito, a designer and PhD Candidate in Sustainability and innovation for the design of the built environment and product system at the Department of Architecture of the University of Florence, present the paper “Embodied Communication Design: Enhancing Engagement and Memory Retention Through Immersive Experiencesthat” which investigates how the integration of embodied knowledge in communication design transforms the audience from passive spectators to engaged participants, enhancing emotional engagement and memory retention through immersive and multisensory experiences.
Ar. Deepika Shukla, an architect and researcher, explores the interrelationships between architecture, memory, and cognitive-emotional responses in her paper, “The Labyrinth of Space and Cognitive Responses to Memory in Architecture.” Drawing insights from neuroscience, phenomenology, and environmental psychology, she examines the complex interplay between these elements. The paper contributes to the understanding of how built environments impact human memory, both at the neurological level and in terms of emotional perception.
Lorí Crízel, a PhD Candidate in Neuroarchitecture at Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná, Brazil, president of ANFA Brazil (Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture), CEO and Co-founder of the Neuro.Bio.Design Institute, and Professor at POLI.design – Politecnico di Milano (Italy); and Dr Marivania Cristina Bocca, a psychologist and Professor at IPOG Brazil, and a researcher in existential psychology and phenomenology, focusing on human experience, temporality, and space; present the paper “Inhabiting Time: Embodied Memory and Spatial Temporality in the Built Environment”. This article investigates how architecture embodies temporal experience through spatial design, memory, and emotion, proposing an interdisciplinary approach to environments that evoke embodied memory and support cultural and personal continuity. They explore how architecture can be understood as an extension of embodied memory, integrating perspectives from neuroscience applied to design and philosophical approaches that investigate memory as a dynamic duration.
Samer Wanan, PhD candidate, ESALA, the University of Edinburgh, in the essay “‘It is the Allure of the Mysterious’: Tracing Memory within an Evicted Site”, explores the spatial and temporal capacity of traces as sites of memory, not only as material witnesses that recollect past events or recall absent subjects but also as storytellers that facilitate repair and reconstruction – within the particular context of precarity and forced eviction, whether by violence or under the threat of violence, leaving only minimal traces behind. The paper discusses the condition of Khan al-Ahmar, located east of Jerusalem and the site from a recent competition in which the author participated to design a mobile school for Palestinian children.
Dr. Ing. M.Sc. Asser Al Hamoud, is an independent researcher and architect, whose work combines academic research with professional experience, presenting the paper “Preserving Identity and Collective Memory: Strategies for the Socially Acceptable Reconstruction of Aleppo’s Informal Settlements”, which examines the profound impact of the Syrian Civil War on Aleppo’s architectural identity, focusing on the destruction of its eastern neighborhoods, which are home to many informal settlements. The article highlights the importance of preserving collective memory while offering innovative, regionally relevant housing solutions for post-crisis reconstruction.
Maria Howard, MLitt Art Writing, BA Hons History of Art, and PhD Candidate at the Glasgow School of Art, submits the paper “The column as a vehicle for memory and imagination in Glasgow’s George Square”, an analysis of Glasgow’s main civic space in light of its neoclassical architecture and its links to slavery, empire and the climate crisis. The article examines Glasgow’s George Square as a site of memory, focusing on three existing structures: the City Chambers, the Merchants House and the Walter Scott Monument, all built in the classical style between 1837 and 1909. The research aims to draw a link between the city’s colonial and imperial past and ecological future by focusing on the architectural form of the column.
The final paper, “The Fortress that was First a Rock: A Critical Reading of History and Territory in the Contemporary Restoration of Castlegrande”, by Antonio Olavarrieta Acebo, architect and PhD candidate at the University of Valladolid, explores Aurelio Galfetti’s restoration project at Castelgrande as a critical restoration that redefines landscape, memory, and place through architectural topography, void manipulation, and dialectical spatial experience. Through graphic analysis, the paper aims to situate these strategies within a broader theoretical framework that enables their individual examination and contributes to a deeper reflection on the role of architecture as a mediator between memory, matter, and time.
Through this issue, ArchiDOCT continues its commitment to supporting and disseminating doctoral research that expands the horizons of architecture. By engaging with the topic of memory, we aim to reveal how the human experience of architecture, as both a conceptual and material practice, is continually shaped by memory. In understanding memory as constitutive of architectural theory and production, we move toward an understanding of the discipline not merely as the design of static objects, but as a temporal field that embodies continuity, transformation, and renewal.