Convinced of his importance to future generations, Architect and dome-wrangler Buckminster Fuller took it upon himself to document his life as fully as possible. He produced a scrapbook containing copies of all his correspondence, sketches, receipts, newspaper clippings etc. over a 66-year period. By the end the ‘Dymaxion Chronofile’ as he grandiosely named it, comprised 700 volumes, comprising 140,000 pieces of paper, 64,000 feet of film and 1500 hours of audio recording.
It could be argued that we each have our own Chronofile, albeit incomplete and fragmentary when compared to Fuller’s prodigious tome. The photographs, mementoes and ephemera contained therein document both an individual’s life, and a moment in history. The incompleteness of this chronicle is also interesting, a thousand forgotten moments which could be re-created, substituted or fabricated.
This year unit 5 explored the themes of ‘Memory’ and ‘Incompleteness’ and how they might be applied to the practice of architecture. These qualities may be consciously explored in a proposal or could emerge unbidden with the passage of time. The stone faces of London bear the acne scars of wartime shrapnel and the obscuring grime of a million commutes.
Projects were sited in the coastal town of Hastings, East Sussex.
Mark Davies and Mark Hatter
Annikki Mair
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