Architecture in Mind: Elderly’s Affective Memories and Spatial Perceptions of a Downtown Area

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationships of affection, among elderly inhabitants, with the downtown area of their city, especially when evoking and re-evoking memories of significant urban transformations experienced by them. The objective of this research is to reconstruct the cartography of the downtown area of the city of Campinas (in the state of São Paulo, Brazil), during the period of 1930–1935, articulated with the fields of Neuroscience, and Architecture and Urbanism. The methodology is centered around semi-structured interviews with 7 (seven) participants, and employs cartographic map and historical photos of the downtown area of the city to elaborate the volumetric model on which the evoked and re-evoked memories of the interviewees are recorded. From the results obtained we point out: [A] the hybridization between the brain maps of elderly people and the cartographic map of the downtown area of the city; [B] the professional experiences and social activities of the elderly people modulate their spatial perception and their autobiographical memories; [C] the re-evoking of somatosensory memories indicates the modulation of perception of spaces experienced by the elderly in their childhood; [D] the acceptance of radical urban transformations, regardless of the wealth of affective memories related to the modified spaces and demolished buildings. These results seek to broaden the body of contributions to the advancement of research on spatial perception and mental images of the urban space.