Mapping the City: Narratives of Memory and Place

Abstract

How do we discover a new place and begin to get acquainted with it? In Canadian cities, the sense of place can be difficult to grasp. The relative youth of the built form of our cities and a constant influx of new people from other cities, provinces, and countries continuously re-calibrate what place means. In Calgary, the sense of place includes relationships to its surroundings and the stories that are tied to the city. Ideas surrounding place are essential for architects who want to design while considering context. The question this thesis examines is: How can we learn about place, describe it, and share it, while respecting a multiplicity of experiences and histories of the city?

The act of mapping is one of the ways in which designers can begin to understand and express a sense of place. This thesis explores the connections between place, memory, and narrative and how mapping can share these aspects of experience. Through mapping, four stories of the city of Calgary emerge from a mixture of personal experience, historical maps, and research. These maps begin to express place through describing official and unofficial histories, experimenting with material and scale, and presenting narratives of the city that come through lived experience in a place.