MSoA — ARCH673 — W23
Memory Garden
by Steven Starkell
The site of the former NCC is rebuilt as a garden rich with the site’s embedded stories — a spatial record of collective memory and a foundation for a vibrant future. Throughout its landscape, the stone ruins of the old building are unearthed, remnants of a heavy past from which new construction rises — light and shining with colour. The garden’s spaces reveal themselves slowly, recalling spatial memories of the former building through moments of vibrant colour and places for telling stories and passing knowledge between generations, interspersed between three pavilions containing a small archive centre, a workshop, and a greenhouse.
Key spatial moments from the NCC: the mass of its walls creates an interior world; corner stairs direct circulation around, not through; re-use of an old building creates a distinctive break between the facade and interior.
These moments are translated into the new garden in two planters acting as thresholds and seating, and a facade re-using the NCC’s old stones.
