The dynamism of urban memory: Investigating the afforded meanings and habits of a historic khan

Abstract

This paper uses affordance theory and the 4EA approach – extended, embodied, embedded, enacted, and affective cognition – to show how embodied cognition and environmental affordances shape urban memory. The activation of urban senses through affordances highlights how technological apparatuses can express what already exists in experiences, but is yet to be examined. The narrative flow of the city, beginning with operative behaviours and roles, is enhanced and complemented by student sketches of the urban fabric, driven by structural elements, which together evoke a similar sense of memory but in different ways. Drawing on students’ narratives and sketches of Alacahan, a historic khan in Trabzon, Türkiye, the paper explores how architecture can affectively shape and be shaped by urban actors. Consequently, this paper suggests a theoretical and pedagogical framework based on sketches and narratives as technological apparatuses to investigate how vital memories and habits of urban fabrics enable new meanings and values to produce urban appropriation and sustainability. The sensory landscape of Alacahan, with its rhythm of copper work, cool air, sharp metallic scents, and the reverberations of timber and stone, collectively forms a living, multisensory urban memory. This framework shows that architectural experience and its dynamic habits persist in sketches, stories, and activities, embedding architecture in embodied cognition.