Coptic Ruins Reincarnated

Abstract

For several decades Egypt has seen a vast number of its Coptic Orthodox Churches targeted, attacked and burned down due to a continuing conflict between various religious sects. This conflict has become more evident through this past decade. With the country’s unfolding problems being pushed to the margins, there appears to be little hope for these specific churches to be re-established on their home-grounds.

This thesis is a drawing led design research that examines the activation of lost space through the visual representation and interpretation of interiority. The research develops a novel interior dialogue that recalls lost spaces, that is beyond conventional and monumental museums, and memorials. It recognises the Coptic Orthodox Church as a lost space that has undergone human affiliated destruction, and employs this space as the driver of the study. It aligns itself with the notions of memory and architecture to produce a series of intuitive, analytical and spatial drawings representative of one’s personal memory of the lost Coptic Orthodox Church. This thesis offers a series of work that allows for the development of personal spatial recall and concludes with a paper archive memorial; a conceptual testimony to the experience of the lost space of the Coptic Orthodox Church.