Narratives in the shadow of ypres’ reconstruction

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes. The name chosen by the Westhoek to present the story of the reconstruction to the general public in 2020 is particularly noteworthy. Ypres is a city in the West of Flanders (Belgium) that was completely destroyed during the First World War. ‘The Death of Ypres’ was announced, illustrating a farewell to the rich history of the medieval metropolis. However, the city was rebuilt, and the question of how to proceed with the reconstruction caused quite a stir. Our paper, published in AMPS volume 29, considers the proposals put forth by the various parties and indicates how the eventual 'identical reconstruction' should be taken with a grain of salt.

The question of ‘how to remember’ is inextricably connected to ‘what to remember’ as the war memory appeared as a new protagonist on stage, being up until today a significant driving force behind the tourism industry in the Westhoek. From that same stage, however, the experiences and perspectives of ordinary individuals disappeared, overshadowed by the larger narrative of the reconstruction after the Great War. Our paper explores the complex interplay between commemorative spaces, such as cemeteries and monuments, described here as spaces for memory, and the memories of places, namely the memories of everyday experiences of those who lived through the reconstruction. However, when the spatial translation of these spaces for memory and memories of places is unbalanced, it might counteract the residents’ recovery while hindering the restoration of their broken journeys. This is further examined in the context of Ypres' reconstruction through the concept of spatial memory.

This paper was presented at the AMPS conference, entitled ‘Heritages: Past and Present – Built and Social’, which was hosted in Prague, June 2023 within the framework of ‘Local Histories – Regional Cultures. Storytelling locally, regionally and globally.

Restoring broken journeys in the framework of urban reconstruction after a disaster: the Ypres case by Marie Nevejan (KU Leuven, Belgium) and Gisèle Gantois (KU Leuven, Belgium) is published in Architecture_MPS, volume 29.

Marie Nevejan is a doctoral researcher at KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture. Her research project focuses on the reconstruction of the Westhoek after the battles of the First World War. This research analyses how spatial memory can contribute to after-war reconstruction. The PhD, entitled ‘The Role of Spatial Memory in Urban Reconstruction Planning after Disaster. The Ypres Case’, is embedded within the research groups ‘Urban Projects, Collective Spaces and Local Identities’ and ‘Architectural Cultures of the Recent Past’ and is part of the research project ‘Restoring Broken Journeys’ of prof. Gantois.

Prof. Dr. Gisèle Gantois is affiliated with the Faculty of Architecture and the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation, KU Leuven. Her research ‘Restoring Broken Journeys’ focusses on the re-establishment of a previous (social) right, practice, or situation, which was distorted, while looking at the future. She looks at heritage in a different way beyond the pure restoration of a historical site or area but investigates on how journeys, narratives and lives are closely entangled within a lived environment which has an indivisible link with built community heritage. In her research she attributes an important role to spatial memory in recovery processes after disaster making a clear difference between spaces for memory and memories of places and to small-scale community heritage as important anchor point within that spatial memory such as in ‘The Role of Community Heritage in the Process of Post-Conflict Recovery’.

urban reconstruction spatial memory place-attachment everyday heritage AMPS Architecture_MPS