Remembering the Absence: Occupation of Alcatra

With the predictable negative human emotional connection to the Alcatraz Island due to its infamous reputation of being a place of confinement, the site remains as an embodiment of mental struggle, sadness, pain, stress, and mental degradation. The island has become an emblem of the unwanted human condition. This thesis contends that certain periods have been given much more prominence in the imagination while others not been in the forefront. The study will focus of one such period -- the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz Island. This thesis considers the role of the memorial, as a medium of recollection and reflection of the "erased" past.;With careful arrangements of the architectural experience and design principles, the thesis highlights the comprehensive nature of its past history and memory. The architectural intervention to the existing condition need to serve as a place to represent a particular identity and event. Through the consideration of the unified voices that shape the Occupation of Alcatraz, it reinforces an architectural language that serves not only as a catalyst, but as a channel for conversation between collective memory and the environment that surrounds them, an identity of the place is established. The aim is to create an architectural intervention that connects with the visitors to embrace the beauty of the physical impermanence and its relationship to the collective memory and identity.