Petrifying memories: Architecture and the construction of identity

Journal of Architecture

Volumn 4, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 369-390

  Heynen, Hilde ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LEUVEN   (Belgium)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61349120672     PISSN: 13602365     EISSN: 14664410     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/136023699373765     Document Type: Review

References (36)

1. Andreas Huyssen, Twilight Memories. Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia (London, Routledge, 1995), especially the chapter on 'Escape from Amnesia: The Museum as Mass Medium', pp. 13-36.
2. Robert Hewison, The Heritage Industry. Britain in a Climate of Decline (London, Methuen, 1987), p. 135.
3. Lode Declercq, Chris Demaegd, 'De verloren ruïne van Leuven', Monumenten en landschappen, 3 (1999), pp. 55-7.
4. Christine Boyer, The City of Collective Memory. Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments (London, MIT Press, 1994).
5. I am using the Dutch translation, edited by Mark Elchardus: Maurice Halbwachs, Het collectief geheugen (Leuven, Acco, 1991)
6. translation of La Mémoire Collective (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1950).
7. Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City (London, MIT Press, 1989)
8. (translation of L'Architettura della Citta (1966)), pp. 57-61.
9. David Harvey, Consciousness and the Urban Experience (London, Basil Blackwell, 1985), especially the chapter on 'Monument and Myth: The Building of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart', pp. 221-49.
10. Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place. Urban Landscapes as Public History (London, MIT Press, 1996).
11. Francis Strauven, 'Overheidsopdrachten in België en in Vlaanderen' in Marc Dubois et al. (eds), Jaarboek Architectuur Vlaanderen (Brussels, Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, 1994), pp. 32-9, p. 32 (English translation pp. 190-2).
12. Bart Verschaffel, 'The monumental: on the meaning of a form', The Journal of Architecture, 4 (1999), pp. 333-6.
13. Donald Olsen, The City as a Work of Art. London, Paris, Vienna (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1986).
14. Carl E. Schorske, Fin-de-siècle Vienna. Politics and Culture (London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979).
15. Aloïs Riegl, Le culte moderne des monuments. Son essence et sa genèse (translation of Der moderne Denkmalkultus, 1903) (Paris, Seuil, 1984), p. 47.
16. Franoise Choay, L'allégorie du patrimoine (Seuil, Paris, 1992), p. 15.
17. Bart Verschaffel, 'Wonen in de tijd' in André Loeckx et al. (eds), Wegwijs wonen (Leuven, Davidsfonds, 1993), pp. 43-6.
18. Rem Koolhaas, 'The Generic City' in Rem Koolhaas, S, M, L, XL (Rotterdam, 010, 1995), pp. 1239-64, p. 1248.
19. Walter Benjamin, 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' in Walter Benjamin, Illuminations. Essays and Reflections (New York, Schocken, 1969), pp. 217-52, p. 221.
20. John Urry, The Tourist Gaze (London, Sage, 1990), especially the chapters 'Gazing on History' (pp. 104-34)
21. and 'Tourism, Culture and Social Inequality' (pp. 135-57).
22. Fran oise Choay, op. cit., p. 15.
23. Jean-Fran ois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition. A Report on Knowledge (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1984).
24. William M. Johnston, 'The Art of Remembrance: Theatricalisation of Historical Memory as a Spur to Re-Experiencing Time and Place', lecture for the colloquium 'Reconstructing the Past'. In his book Postmodernisme et Bimillènaire (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1992), Johnston also comments on Mitterand's successful efforts to monumentalise the Bicentennial of the French Revolution through the building of several grand projects: the Opera of the Bastille, the Pyramid of the Louvre, and the Arch of La Défence. Apparently, there are exceptions to the rule of ephemeralisation.
25. Piet Lombaerde, Leopold II. Koning-Bouwheer (Gent, Snoeck-Ducaju, 1995);
26. Liliane Ranieri, Leopold II. Urbaniste (Bruxelles, Hayez, 1973).
27. Bruno De Meulder, 'The Heizel: crossroads of time and space', Archis, 8 (1996), pp. 67-80.
28. Laurence van Ypersele, 'Een natie neemt afscheid van haar koning', in Christian Koninckx and Patrick Lefevre (eds), Boudewijn. Een koning en zijn tijd (Tielt, Lannoo, 1998), pp. 244-57.
29. Graaf Didisheim, 'De Koning Boudewijnstichting', Ibid., 1998, pp. 232-43.
30. Bruno De Meulder, 'Monuments to a departed king', Archis, 2 (1997), pp. 16-24, p. 18.
31. For an analysis of the events on 29 May 1985, see Paul 't Hart, Bert Pijnenburg, Het Heizeldrama. Rampzalig organiseren en kritieke beslissingen (Alphen aan de Rijn, Samson H.D. Tjeenk Willink, 1988).
32. When I inquired whether there exists a material sign of remembrance for the tragedy of 1985 - a stone or a statue - I was told that such a stone exists, but that it was, due to the renovation, kept in the cellars. Unfortunately, moreover, it seems that it had been broken. But plans were made, it was said, to bring it back to its assigned spot as soon as the necessary works were completed.
33. Marc Bloch, Les rois thaumaturges. Etude sur le caractère surnaturel attribué ‡ la puissance royale particulièrement en France et en Angleterre (Paris, Gallimard, 1983 (11924)).
34. William A. Chaney, The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England. The Transition from Paganism to Christianity (Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1970).
35. The 'king's question' of 1950 had to do with the intense discussions about Leopold III, his role in the war and the doubts about his continuing rights to the throne. In a referendum Belgian people had voted with a minimal majority for his re-installation as the king, but his actual return evoked major contestations and uproar. The hard-fought solution was finally found in his abdication and Baudouin's accession to the throne.
36. A suggestion for such a plan is formulated in Tim Pashuysen and Luk Peeters, 'De Heizel: strategieën voor nieuwe stedelijkheid', in Bruno De Meulder et al. (eds), A moving city. Three years of architectural explorations in Brussel's canal zone (Brussel, cAD, 1998), pp. 345-383.