Preserving the past in a digital age

Abstract

The research hypothesis is that extensive layering and apparent modifications in the San Isidro area along Manzanares, dictated by the necessity of expansion, have changed the site’s everydayness. As a result, patterns of continuities and discontinuities began to take over the area, which needs to be addressed in the contemporary context and life of the city. This calls for an architectural intervention which aims, beyond the project itself, to the seamless transition of current and future everyday rituals. Due to urban stratification, there is an accumulation of multiple functions, atmospheres, daily rituals and routines over the greater area of San Isidro. In particular, the San Isidro, San Justo and Santa Maria cemeteries, alongside the park, festivities, and infrastructural networks, pose a convoluted environment where the different functions compete for prevalence. Simultaneously, their borders blur, putting the contemporary rituals in danger instead of promoting their evolution/development along the urban context. Furthermore, the city’s current and future development plans treat the areas mentioned above as sites of additions; it is not interested in preserving or developing existing characters; rather, it imposes new ones. Instead of trying to solve or alleviate the complex current state, it adds more layers to the existing ones. The graduation projects need to act as a reflection and critique This paper examines how changes in physical retail due to digital advances can inform a sustainable and adaptive design for Dutch post-war shopping malls. Malls have become outdated and don’t fit in the current society anymore. The malls that are still functioning are shifting to an entertainment experience. Research on a futureorientated design using developments in online retail can make malls adaptable for the future. A silver lining in this research is if the social, aesthetical, and economic values of the mall still are perceived by the public after these futureorientated developments.of the current situation...