Dialogue III - Virtual Ambiguity

Navigating Memory amidst Erasure in Lagos and Haifa

Abstract

This conversation examines digital twinning as a mode of resisting memory erasure in Lagos and Haifa, one that sustains ambiguity rather than forcing resolution. Through the Independence House in Lagos and the ruined structures of Wadi Salib in Haifa, the dialogue argues that immersive digital models do more than conserve architectural form. They register the unstable, affective, and politically charged conditions of spaces shaped by colonial modernism, state neglect, and contested remembrance. Traditional architectural documentation often flattens these complexities, whereas digital twins enable renewed encounters with sites that are inaccessible, altered, or destroyed, allowing their ongoing transformations to be sensed rather than fixed. In Lagos, the digital record of the Tafawa Balewa Square gates supported reconstruction efforts and ignited public debate about the rapid disappearance of tropical modernism. In Haifa, virtual reconstructions provide a setting for re-encounter and imaginative return, shifting preservation from a static archival practice to a participatory and speculative one. Both contexts reveal a need to dwell in ambiguity, where the virtual operates as a memory infrastructure capable of hosting layered, even conflicting narratives. Instead of securing a singular heritage, the digital twin becomes a generative field for critique, storytelling, and collective engagement with unfinished architectural futures.