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Re-imagining psychiatric asylum spaces through residential redevelopment: strategic forgetting and selective remembrance

Re-imagining psychiatric asylum spaces through residential redevelopment: strategic forgetting and selective remembrance
Re-imagining psychiatric asylum spaces through residential redevelopment: strategic forgetting and selective remembrance
The closure of psychiatric asylums across the western world has brought significant amounts of ‘brown field’ land onto the market over the past few decades. Situated on the edge (or former edge) of many cities, these sites have proven attractive for residential redevelopment. Drawing on two case studies from the UK and New Zealand, we consider the implications of such recycling in the built environment for the memory of the former use, asking how redevelopment addresses the stigmatised past of the asylum. We discuss issues associated with the ‘re-imagining’ of heritage buildings and landscapes and examine the extent to which the past is strategically forgotten or selectively remembered in the repackaging of the asylum as housing. We conclude that while stigma continues to cast a shadow over reuse of former asylum spaces, in both case studies impacts seem to dissipate over time. In the UK, this dissipation appears to be enhanced by the presence of policies that cast redevelopment for housing as a source of funding for heritage conservation.
0267-3037
135-153
Joseph, Alun
9a4a4b8e-2b71-4a99-a70f-3d945839a0d1
Kearns, Robin
24b11ec7-7029-4c61-a09c-3745468ee912
Moon, Graham
68cffc4d-72c1-41e9-b1fa-1570c5f3a0b4
Joseph, Alun
9a4a4b8e-2b71-4a99-a70f-3d945839a0d1
Kearns, Robin
24b11ec7-7029-4c61-a09c-3745468ee912
Moon, Graham
68cffc4d-72c1-41e9-b1fa-1570c5f3a0b4

Joseph, Alun, Kearns, Robin and Moon, Graham (2013) Re-imagining psychiatric asylum spaces through residential redevelopment: strategic forgetting and selective remembrance. Housing Studies, 28 (1), 135-153. (doi:10.1080/02673037.2013.729270).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The closure of psychiatric asylums across the western world has brought significant amounts of ‘brown field’ land onto the market over the past few decades. Situated on the edge (or former edge) of many cities, these sites have proven attractive for residential redevelopment. Drawing on two case studies from the UK and New Zealand, we consider the implications of such recycling in the built environment for the memory of the former use, asking how redevelopment addresses the stigmatised past of the asylum. We discuss issues associated with the ‘re-imagining’ of heritage buildings and landscapes and examine the extent to which the past is strategically forgotten or selectively remembered in the repackaging of the asylum as housing. We conclude that while stigma continues to cast a shadow over reuse of former asylum spaces, in both case studies impacts seem to dissipate over time. In the UK, this dissipation appears to be enhanced by the presence of policies that cast redevelopment for housing as a source of funding for heritage conservation.

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Accepted/In Press date: 2012
Published date: 2013
Organisations: PHEW – C (Care), Population, Health & Wellbeing (PHeW)

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 343097
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/343097
ISSN: 0267-3037
PURE UUID: 56fb70b0-f185-430c-baab-61ddd27c9509
ORCID for Graham Moon: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7256-8397

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 24 Sep 2012 12:55
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:27

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Contributors

Author: Alun Joseph
Author: Robin Kearns
Author: Graham Moon ORCID iD

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