01

Visual Matrix

This is a group process based on participants being invited to freely associate any feelings, other images, films, stories, songs or experiences evoked by the images shown in the first part of the process. The free associative part of the process is known as a matrix and is followed by a shorter sense making group process, where participants and host jointly reflect on what emerged as associative responses to the visual material. The term matrix is used to indicate a space for the exploration of unconscious material elicited by the images and accessed by allowing associations to emerge.

02

Social Dreaming

Similar to the Visual Matrix, and in-fact the origins of both the above as further developments of it, this process is based on the assumption that dreams reflect not only individual experiences, but also the experiences we all share by being part of a wider and shared environment. The matrix in Social Dreaming invites participants to share their night time dreams and associations to them, followed by a sense making group reflection. The assumption here is that a stimulus associated to a building may produce dreams related to its unconscious dimensions.

03

Visual Material

This is a collection of images associated with the building which can form the basis of a Visual Matrix. The images could be of the building in use and/or its architecture and/or its history collected from a visit, archive, online libraries, architectural practices or reportage, and take the form of photographs, drawings, diagrams, film stills or collages. If used in relation to the Social Photo Matrix the Visual Material should be produced by the participants of the Matrix

04

Family Tree & Timeline

The family tree and timeline materials are the result of research into the building through visits and/or archive and desk-top research and/or interviews with occupants or people significant to the building. The Family Tree constructs a family for the building of related architecture, objects, people and other animate and inanimate entities. It is speculative about who both the ancestors and the descendants of the building are. The timeline charts events significant to the building through its prehistory and lifespan. The family tree is diagrammatic with text and/or images representing family members. The timeline is adjacent and comprises of text and/or image entries set out in a linear chronology.

05

Social Photo Matrix

This group process differs from the Visual matrix in that it is based on photographs taken by people related to the building, its users/stakeholders in particular would be the most appropriate group of participants, as the method is designed as an action research activity able to use the eyes, hearts and minds of participants. The process of working with the photographs produced is similar to both visual and Social Dreaming Matrices.

06

Deputised Object

These materials are physical objects generated from motifs of the architecture of the building being explored that are deputised as an identity of the building. They are scaled to be held and intended to be employed within psychosocial activities and/or therapy sessions.

07

Psychodynamic Therapy

The building is ‘on the couch’ and in conversation with a psychoanalyst therapist through one or more human stand-ins. The stand-ins may be more or less or differently knowledgeable about the building, but all must consider the building as ‘I’. The stand-in may be a building occupant, architectural historian, researcher, design team member, commissioner. Therapy sessions may collect many voices to create one assembled voice of the building. In preparation for therapeutic sessions questions/approaches for the therapy may be developed from Family Tree and Timeline Materials and previous psychosocial activities.

08

Days of Action

The building is ‘on the couch’ and in conversation with a psychoanalyst therapist through one or more human stand-ins. The stand-ins may be more or less or differently knowledgeable about the building, but all must consider the building as ‘I’. The stand-in may be a building occupant, architectural historian, researcher, design team member, commissioner. Therapy sessions may collect many voices to create one assembled voice of the building. In preparation for therapeutic sessions questions/approaches for the therapy may be developed from Family Tree and Timeline Materials and previous psychosocial activities.