Saoirse Stenhouse

Architecture MArch (Hons)

Cumbernauld; an Analogous City, endeavours to propose a symbolic version of Cumbernauld constructed through ‘collective memory’ and ‘analogy’.

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profile photograph of Saoirse Stenhouse

Cumbernauld has seen its town centre megastructure deteriorate and its use dwindle over the years, leading to talks of its demolition. Operating under the assumption that the Cumbernauld megastructure has succumb to the inevitable and been demolished, the surrounding residential communities are left without a town centre. In a disposable age, society is quick to replace what is broken. In that vein, simply replacing Cumbernauld’s town centre would be easy. However, what is always overlooked in new developments is the need to remember what has been replaced and without appropriate intervention the megastructure will be forgotten.

The intervention proposes a series of excavations and towers constructing a new cityscape that occupies the same physical space as the former Cumbernauld. This new landscape comes together to form a version of Cumbernauld that is not simply a historicist replica, but instead introduces a series of symbolic forms that are either ‘analogous’ of or retain the ‘collective memory’ of the former city.  This new cityscape challenges the modern-day convention of replacement and forgettance and instead proposes a new ‘Analogous Cumbernauld’.

Cumbernauld; an Analogous City

The artwork is a montage of drawings and ideas pertaining to the themes of analogy and memory. The montage includes the work of prominent architectural theorists, relevant case studies and the author.

‘Analogous Cumbernauld’, a reinterpretation of Aldo Rossi’s ‘La Città Analoga’ for Cumbernauld

The image contains five plans and sections, one set for each tower.

Analogical representations of the demolished megastructure in the form of towers. Each tower encapsulates the character of its symbolic social institution, making the towers distinctly different and identifiable.

The image consists of five axonometrics and perspectives, one set for each excavation and corresponding tower.

Excavations act as sites of remembrance dedicated to the former Cumbernauld while towers celebrate the birth of a new Cumbernauld above ground.

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