The Memory of Parts is an ongoing project aiming to problematise the way buildings are archived, described, and valued. Moving beyond standard narratives that focus on programmes, ecologies of use, architectural intentions, and part-to-whole relationships, the project investigates alternative readings, meanings, and regimes of attention and care.
In the first instalment of the project, developed in 2017 at Carliol House in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the unsung fragments and dusty corners of a vacant building were captured using a white clay mix. The resulting pieces—negotiated through an iterative choreography of rotations, extrusions and pressure points—were dried, strung into a totemic structure, and exhibited to the public.
In collaboration with Pierangelo Scravaglieri. Funded by the Architecture Research Collaborative (ARC) at Newcastle University. Published in: Ferracina, Simone. “Exaptive Design: Radical Co-Authorship as Method.” In Experimental Architecture: Designing the Unknown, edited by Rachel Armstrong, 121–43. London and New York: Routledge, 2019; Ferracina, Simone. Ecologies of Inception: Design Potentials on a Warming Planet. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2022.
