Hi, I’m Starlet. I study how Postcolonial architecture in Goa preserves memory and reveals a hybrid identity shaped by colonial and local cultures.
This dissertation investigates how survivors and witnesses of Argentina’s 1976–1983 dictatorship construct cognitive maps, mental representations of space, to identify and historically reconstruct sites where previous clandestine detention centres operated, with a focus on the Bacacay Street site in Buenos Aires. Drawing on cognitive science and environmental perception theories of Edward Tolman and Kevin Lynch, along with schema research and trauma studies, this dissertation applies these theoretical frameworks to testimonies, archival records, and interviews.Even though extreme circumstances and trauma have fragmented survivors’ testimonies, their cognitive maps continue to play a crucial role in identifying and reconstructing the history of these sites. In the face of current political efforts to erase the dictatorship’s crimes, this study proposes a digital mapping strategy that combines survivors’ mental maps with architectural physical data, preserving these sites for the future education of generations and collective memory.
By examining how individuals form and adapt cognitive maps under traumatic conditions, the dissertation highlights the importance of memory in ensuring that state-sponsored violence is neither forgotten nor repeated. Ultimately, the research highlights cognitive mapping as a powerful tool for historical reconstruction, advocating for Argentina’s contiued commitment to truth, justice, and education.
The dissertation examines the relationship between colonialism and ecology through the colonial construction of two key architectural forms in Goa—the churches and the Indo-Portuguese bungalows, analyzing how material choices and building techniques reflect the ideological colonial agenda, through the extraction and use of materials like laterite and stone, replacing indigenous mudbrick construction. Simultaneously providing the understanding of the sites pre-colonial symbolic importance. It delves into how contemporary Goan architecture acts as a postcolonial locus. Exploring its role in shaping Goan identity through the lived experience of the people, it assesses whether these buildings are perceived as integral to their cultural identity or as lingering symbols of colonial oppression.
BA Architecture is a three-year full-time programme offering exemption from ARB/RIBA Part 1, and the first step towards a career as an architect. The programme interweaves the disciplines of architectural design, histories and theories, technology, and professional practice. The design studio is central to the work students undertake, with year 2 and 3 students taught together in design units. Each unit addresses a different brief and design agenda. This is a rigorous and highly inventive programme, dedicated to architectural ways of designing, thinking and seeing the world. It provides students will skillsets applicable to a wide range of careers.
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