Presented by: Elizabeth Danze, FAIA

This presentation examines the concept of resilience in both architecture and human experience through the shared metaphor of the palimpsest—a form that retains traces of its past while adapting to the present. Drawing on Vitruvius’s notion of firmitas and extending it through the study of buildings, we explore how architecture responds to time, material change, and shifting cultural, political, and spiritual forces—including the impact of war and destruction. The architectural palimpsest, through visible layers, erasures, and reinterpretations, serves as a model for the layered nature of human consciousness, where memory, trauma, and transformation accumulate rather than disappear. Analogies between built form and psychological depth show how both architecture and the mind bear history not as static inheritance, but as evolving potential. Just as buildings undergo adaptive reuse to remain meaningful, psychotherapy offers tools for internal resilience. Ultimately, architecture and psychoanalysis illuminate each other, revealing how we build upon the visible and invisible structures of the past to navigate change and pursue a fuller, more integrated life.