Making Memory Space: Recollection and Reconciliation in Post ...

a mechanism of power, to create new physical and ideological languages. It does not seek to explore
the cognitive operations of memory, rather to examine and critique differing modes of memory space
in order to better understand the relationship between physical space and recollection and the extent
to which that can be successfully controlled or designed. This study uses memory in South Africa as a
springboard for an analysis of the mechanisms around the production of memory and the construction
of memory space. The demise of Apartheid has provided an opportunity for re-examination of the
status quo in a society that is seeking to privilege memory and the process of recollection. In
attempting to find an appropriate voice for South African memory space, wider implications of the
mechanisms of these architectures come to light. While unique to the South African context,
discussions around the successes and failures of that memory space proffer insights into the
machinations of memory space at a broader level. It is my objective that in understanding how the
spatial production of memory operates in South Africa, we may draw conclusions about the
possibilities and limits of architectural memory practice in other environments.
The conscious manner with which South Africa addresses the past presents a unique context from
which to examine memory and the construction of memory space. The specificity of the situation
stems in part from the overarching trauma inherent in the existence of Apartheid itself, which impacted
the county socially, politically and spatially. Apartheid spans approximately 50 years and is a historical
imperative unique to South Africa. Yet arguably, its roots emerge from a previous history, one that
foregrounds it in a colonial context. Thus the country has a long history of spatial appropriation that
has resulted in the dominance of one cultural perspective over another. During the years of Apartheid,
space was utilised as a tool for articulating the specificities of the laws of Apartheid and making
manifest the racial divisions. These were inculcated into every aspect of built form. The Apartheid
government formulated a deliberate policy of marginalisation and segregation in their approach to civic
space, which has widely impacted on black South Africans’ ability to relate to civic spaces and to find
a personal connection with state architecture. 10 Within South Africa, sites of the past, both as locations
where the realities of Apartheid were enacted and those that reflected selective narratives of the past
(such as museums and memorials), have become politically contested ground. 11 In order for the
country to move forward in a cohesive and multicultural way, the government is seeking to address
these sites and to acknowledge their place as talismans in the landscape of Apartheid, so that the
general population may begin to come to terms with them. In other countries that have experienced
regime change, Central and Eastern Europe for example, outdated symbols and monuments are re-
examined and often discarded in favour of politically expedient messages. 12 The challenge for post-
Apartheid South Africa following the elections in 1994 has been to address this endemic vision of the
10
Lisa Findley, ‘Noero Wolfff Architects commemorates the struggle against Apartheid at the Red Location Museum in South
Africa’, Architectural Record, 03.06 (2006), p.103.
11
Christopher Saunders, ‘The Transformation of Heritage in the new South Africa’, in Hans Erik Stolten (ed), History Making and
Present Day Politics: The Meaning of Collective Memory in South Africa (Stockholm: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet Uppsala, 2007),
p.183.
12
Mark Lewis and Laura Mulvey, Disgraced Monuments (A Monumental Pictures Production for Channel Four: New York
Cinema Guild, 1993).
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