Archived monuments: A speculative reconstruction of the jubilee exhibition 1923

Abstract

The point of departure for this thesis was a curiosity for architecture history and the built heritage. A site with few visible traces of what had been in the past proved to be the place of an important historical event in 1923 - The Jubilee Exhibition in Gothenburg. The subject of reconstruction came to be the area of interest in order to research the site and the jubilee architecture. Studies and categorisation of archival material in the form of photographs, drawings and texts were perfomed in order to provide a basis for a reconstruction. This proved to be of vital importance since none of the temporary buildings built for the exhibition stand today. Reconstruction does not provide one simple solution applicable to all cases. Design strategies were developed during the process through case studies and a number of design explorations. The design approach within this thesis is to execute the reconstruction on its original site, where the jubilee architecture coexists with the current conditions. Alois Riegl's theories on monuments became very helpful in order to analyse the archival material and the Jubilee Exhibition. Since the archival material is the only recollection of the Jubilee Exhibition's existence, they become the new monuments. Therefore, this thesis is a reconstruction of representations rather than a reconstruction of the original buildings as such. The result is a reconstruction of the Jubilee Exhibition 1923 that is coexisting with the current buildings and infrastructure at its original site. Some parts are possible to reconstruct relatively intact without causing damage on existing buildings or disturb for example bike lanes. As far as possible, the reconstruction is programmed to contribute to encourage people to explore. In other cases, only material, colour or expression are possible to reconstruct.