Items related to Architecture of Memory: Exploring (Post-) Jewish Spaces...

Architecture of Memory: Exploring (Post-) Jewish Spaces in Eastern Europe (Design Research in Architecture) - Hardcover

Book 5 of 6: Design Research in Architecture

Romik, Natalia

 
9781800088955: Architecture of Memory: Exploring (Post-) Jewish Spaces in Eastern Europe (Design Research in Architecture)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1800088957 ISBN 13: 9781800088955
Publisher: UCL Press, 2025

Synopsis

Architecture of Memory explores architectural disappearance, urban remembrance and functional change amid social upheaval. Using archival, architectural and artistic methods, Natalia Romik investigates the spectral architecture of former shtetls – predominantly Jewish towns in Central and Eastern Europe before the Second World War. After the war, these towns were repopulated by people of other nationalities, who reused former Jewish properties. Today, traces of the Jewish populations have nearly vanished from urban reality and public discourse. Romik's work seeks to discover new ways to develop abandoned shtetl architecture, focusing on Jewish heritage sites like synagogue ruins and ritual baths.Through an interdisciplinary approach that merges architectural design, contemporary art and Jewish studies, Romik's experimental research addresses the complex social issues of former shtetls by combining theoretical discussions with artistic performances and architectural interventions. The book documents projects ranging from subtle, mirror-clad interventions – such as the Nomadic Shtetl Archive, JAD, and Hurdy-Gurdy – to practical renovations that transform derelict synagogues and Jewish pre-burial houses into historical museums and cultural centres. These efforts confront the 'present absence' of these towns by merging theoretical discourse with archival research, artistic performances and architectural interventions, aimed at investigating the lost Jewish communities' spectral architecture.

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About the Author

Natalia Romik is a practitioner of architecture, designer, author, public historian and artist. She was awarded a PhD from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and holds a scholarship with the Fondation pour la Meěmoire de la Shoah, Gerda Henkel Foundation. Her work addresses academic research with methods of contemporary art and architecture to explore the (post)Jewish architecture of memory.

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Publisher
UCL Press
Publication date
2025
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1800088957
ISBN 13 
9781800088955
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
296