Archetypal Principles - Memorable Places: A Study of the Presence of Higher-Order Characteristics at Bonfire Memorial

This study is part of a work-in-progress that speculateson the possibility that there may be a recurringset of higher-order design characteristics embodiedwithin our most special inventory of place – ‘sacred’place. According to Brill, these higher-orderdesign characteristics make sacred place uniqueand distinct from our everyday ordinary/mundaneplace, thereby revealing it as sacred.1 When embodiedin qualitatively significant and meaningfulways, these characteristics have the potential ofcontributing tremendously to place-making, suchthat place becomes extraordinary and memorable.2 In a time dominated by the desacralizationof place, the re-discovery of such timeless designprinciples, which have guided and informed placemakingfrom time immemorial, is often overlookedorworse, forgotten. Eliade contends that the desacralizationof place has made it increasingly difficultfor modern societies to rediscover existentialdimensions of the sacred that were once immediatelyrecognizable and readily accessible to man ofthe archaic societies in his everyday places.3 Themotivation behind this study therefore, initiatesfrom the need to re-connect with specific designprinciples that contribute to the making of placethat is sacred and memorable.

Volume Editors
Ikhlas Sabouni & Jorge Vanegas