The Keeper of My Memories

The Keeper of My Memories explores architecture within a narrative that bridges the built world and our imagined spaces. This thesis uses the imagined worlds created throughout my life to question, what if childhood daydreaming can be harnessed through architectural narrative so that real and imaginary realms are bridged, sparking moments of reverie and nostalgia? Design-led research is used to explore the research question. Firstly, research-for-design is used to provide a theoretical context and case study analysis, situating the idea of architecture as part of a narrative to enhance the lives of occupants. Secondly, the methodology of research-through-design is used as an iterative design process. The research question is addressed through a narrative methodology, both visually and through supplementary writing. The narrative methodology uses methods of drawing, painting, physical model making and digital Blender models. Research-through-design explores the development of three designed outcomes, presented as part of an overall story, in Chapters Four, Five and Six. Each design chapter increases in detail and scale as the story is told through architecture. Chapter Four, the installation, operates at the miniature scale of the body, acting as a tool to transport the viewer to the imagined realm, invoking the reverie. It follows a model maker as they construct a doll’s house. Chapter Five scales up to the domestic, creating a house at Lime Road and presenting an architecture that is not static. Over time, the house develops alongside the seven characters who reside within it. Chapter Six scales up to a public-scale building by constructing a film set within the reality created in Chapter Five. As a result, the characters at Lime Road become actors in the film, and the house becomes the film set. The Keeper of My Memories is an architectural fantasy that considers imaginary worlds and the architecture within them. This thesis reclaims the worlds constructed within children’s imagination and uses architecture to tether these worlds to a perception of reality.