Research Information System
ArchDesign'15, İstanbul, Turkey, 06 June 2015, pp.167-183
This paper is about haunted spaces. It inquires “conscious” attempts in architectural design which transform non-places into haunted spaces via “place injection”. The main issue that inspires this study is the increasing number of the copies of historic and symbolic buildings. Rather than the construction of new designs, new buildings with old forms habitually attract people’s attention more. Since they have marketable ready made history and memory, they are easily adopted by any society due to their familiar appearances. In this regard, this study defines this market strategy that copying the image of the history and memory of the symbolic buildings as "place injection". Besides, it explains place injected non-places within the framework of "haunted space". The concept of haunted space is developed with the philosophy of hauntology by the French Philosopher Jacques Derrida. In order to explain more about haunted spaces and their "ghosts", the re-construction of replicas in different sites regardless from their original context, and also “nearly” replicas in the designs of hotels, shopping centers and leisure parks are examined within three categories; "use", "re-use" and "abuse" of the ghost of consumerism. As a conclusion, this study underlines that place injection comes out as a solution for non-places, and a market strategy to draw more attraction for economic purposes. However, place injection only makes those non-places undefined, undated copy space; a haunted space in between non-place to space.