Graduation projects

Anamnetic instances on the Danube

Principal author
Anisia Mouhamed
External collaborators
Prof. Dr. Arh Dan Cosmin Pavel Prof. Dr. Arh Cristina Constantin
Project year
2018
Location
Bucuresti
Learning institution
Universitatea de Arhitectura si Urbanism "Ion Mincu"
Project description
The project proposes an experience that could recover the absent image of the island Ada Kaleh. The proposed place is aimed at delineating the image of the shattered community and thus answer the feeling of an endless quest. It is about a symbolic, memory-based return. The origins are rooted in a time which cannot be recreated. “The lost paradise” leaves behind only the hope of return, which opens up the route to virtual recovery. By analogy to the mythical narrative of the flood, the historic events which led to absence are symbolically loaded. Thus, the virtual recovery is ‘shaped’ like Noah’s Ark, which brings back the spirit of the place. Thus, I proposed a route, a journey able to resume the island’s experience from various angles. You get on the boat, reach the walled-garden and are aware of absence; the route climbs up the hill, the highest point from where the island appears under various forms. The route ends up on Șimian island that hosts the ruins of the fortress today. Whenever we look, we perceive what is visible and tangible, yet also the transparency of interiority. Interiority, the invisible side, which is yet perceived at the level of feelings and consciousness. The invisible is far more powerful than the visible. We may have control over whatever we see, but we cannot have control over whatever we feel when we see it. In this case we may wonder what this invisible entity of lost paradise, Ada-Kaleh, is made of and how we could manage to express its absence. The invisible can take the form of anamnesis, a way of recollecting past experiences and ideas. The ark will be that thing that piles up moments and experiences and render them as something we can relive and through which our world can be regenerated.
Text description of the author
I graduated recently from University of Architecture and Urbanism Ion Mincu.
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