Memory and meaning in architecture : Explain Explore Experience

Buildings designed today should have memory and meaning latent in their form. The site should instruct and direct the architecture that will be placed on it. Architect Tadao Ando states: "The purpose of architecture is basically the construction of place" (Frampton, 133). This basic principle of architecture is lost if architects fail to consider the region, the culture of the building's users, the communities within which the building exists, the site on which it is built, or the expression the building creates. Architecture is not just the making of a building; it is the analysis of the site and the understanding of what is needed on the site. In order to make meaningful architecture we must address the site at three levels: the physical place, the cultural place, and the spiritual place. This thesis explains how architecture links memory and meaning through a reinterpretation of the regional climate, cultural heritage, and the multitude of physical and conceptual aspects that constitute site conditions.