Designing for Difficult Memories: Commemorating Australian POW Histories of Malaysia and Singapore

Abstract

This paper examines the theoretical and historic background, and the pedagogical aims and outcomes, of an experimental design studio aimed at bridging two gaps in the Australian architectural curriculum: between history and design, and between Australia and its Asian region. The design studio, "Museum of Difficult Memories", drew on ideas of the contained artefact, traumatic memory, and the re-imagining of the museum program to challenge the orthodox politics of museum and memorial design in the twenty-first century. The representation of singular ideologies through monumental or museum architecture was countered by commemoration through cultural bricolage. The studio aimed to challenge a fa..