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Foster-ing Memories
by Wendy Zhuo
“It is a story. Everything’s a story. You
are a story—I am a story.”
“Memory gives everyone the necessity to remember and to protect the trappings of identity; when memory is no longer everywhere, it will not be anywhere unless one takes the responsibility to recapture it through individual means.”
—Pierre Nora, Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire
Architecture provides the space to create a map of memories and stories that linger behind. The space embodies those memories that are captured throughout time.
Moving from place to place, home to home, foster children live in a world of uncertainty. In the community of foster care, children are focused on the constant moving and re-adjusting that they forget about their dreams and identities. The thesis begins to map out the narratives that connect people through space by passing along the memories and perspectives of foster children from their times with the same family. Children start to communicate through time, through parallel universes, and through space. By investigating how foster children can connect the past, future, and share their own stories, the idea of time collapses into one space and a new tradition is created.
The spaces that each foster child stays in start to leave behind memories, identities and stories. How does architecture help them communicate across time and connect their stories, tracing the fabric of their shared community? The magic and the secrets are left behind for the children to discover.
“It is a story. Everything’s a story. You are a story — I am a story.”