Conflict spaces

Conflict and architecture’s relationship originated from the first rock throw that established space and distance between primordial humans and their aggressors, producing a spatial buffer, which enabled liberation from the evolutionary process (Ritter, 2012). This separation in space was the starting point of discerning the outside (sacred) and the inside (community). The outsider (“the other”), is an increasingly important aspect of societies involved in conflicts; prior, during and in the reconstruction phase. The symbols of memory within a conflict become the focal point, where architecture manifests the history of a place or space. This identity is first deconstructed during the siege, and reconstructed once the territory is pacified. This thesis is an observation of the changes that places and artifacts of memory undergo during a conflict, arguing that architecture is dynamically linked to people; building a foundation for memory, creating a collective identity; an object that is the focus for every conflict.