2008 copyright by .horhizon
.The Memory Archive
Author: Johan Voordouw
The project, a Memory Archive in the hilltop town of Tivoli outside of Rome, was meant as a counterpoint to the Vatican Secret’s Archive.
In the Memory Archive the intension was to place small intimate spaces within a series of successively larger volumes. It was to form intimate moments of the sublime within the larger unease of the labyrinth that stretched on before and after the experience. The archive sought to create secret spaces for the public to explore, search and hide, continuously oscillated between hidden and revealed chambers and adjacent corridors.
The archive was separated into three-linked buildings that occupy the site in varied ways.
The public archive bridged an existing stair in the town and ran perpendicular to the street giving visual access through the building and site to experience the archive passively.
The private archive was carved into the soft travertine hillside and required more active participation. Whilst it was more hidden it also offered better vantage points in which to hide and view others using the archive
Lastly was the archive’s library where memories are organised, catalogued and stored. This structure rests most visibly in the town adjacent to the entry bridge – Pont Gregoriana.
The images illustrated below attempt to capture the digital atmospheric, the heat and humidity or conversely the cool damp of the spaces rendering an emotional response to space which captures the load of carrying secrets and the relief of unburdening them within the space of the sublime.