PhD Research on Memory Archive
November 2006
Nicholas Beech, who is researching his Ph. D at the Bartlett School of Architecture, will be exploring the manifold ways in which ordinary people in their everyday lives have consciously, and unconsciously, contributed to Southbank Centre – its buildings and landscape. Progressing from the work of previous historians who, by examining the buildings of the South Bank, have shown the relationship between the intentions of an architectural profession and national social and political interests, Nicholas Beech hopes to demonstrate that this can best be understood through the many transformations in our everyday lives – the ways in which we fit together our worlds of work and leisure, our habits both personal and social, the manner in which we meet and engage one another. Over a period of three years, which will include the opening of the refurbished Royal Festival Hall and its related archive, Nicholas looks forward to looking at and hearing tales of the apparently ordinary and hum-drum that occurs amongst the spectacular and occasional in London’s premier arts environment, and by so doing, showing how we all have a stake, interest and part to play in our built environment.
