Date of Submission
Spring 5-12-2026
Degree Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Architecture
Department
Architecture
Committee Chair/First Advisor
Jade Yang
Abstract
This thesis examines the relationship between power, propaganda, and spatial memory through the lens of the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état and its lasting impact on collective cultural identity. In response to systems that have controlled and suppressed narratives, the project proposes an alternative architectural framework that reclaims memory as a collective, participatory act. Operating across plazas, protest routes, and alleys in Zone 1 of Guatemala City, the project transforms existing urban conditions into a distributed system of memory production. In plazas, memory is created through acts of gathering and making. Along protest routes, a mobile kit-of-parts which carries the crafts from the making of the Plaza, such as masks, kites, clay tiles, and bamboo sticks through Mayan practices, enables memory to be carried, expressed, and amplified through movement along the protest. In alleys, fragments of these interventions are embedded into the urban fabric, forming intimate spaces of reflection. Through this process, individuals become both creators and carriers of knowledge, shifting authorship away from institutional control. The project seeks to undo manipulation, restore cultural identity, and position architecture as a medium through which people can actively produce, share, and preserve collective memory within the city
Comments
Selected for Thesis Competition