[re]establishing forgotten sites
REFERENCE LIBRARY
“Man looks at the creation of architecture with his eyes, which are 5 feet 6 inches from the ground. One can only deal with aims which the eye can appreciate, and intentions which take into account architectural elements.”
Le Corbusier (1986) Towards a new architecture, New York: Dover Publications , 5
“If we look at it intimately, the humblest dwelling has beauty.”
Gaston Bachelard. (1969). The poetics of space. Boston: Beacon Press. 4.
“More than ever, architectural heritage everywhere is at risk from a lack of appreciation, experience and care. Some have already been lost, and more are in danger. It is a living heritage and it is essential to understand, define, interpret and manage it well for future generations.”
Mohga E. Embaby (2014) Heritage conservation and architectural education: “An education methodology for design studios”, HBRC Journal, 10:3, 339-340
“Our modern culture, acquired by the West, has its roots set deep in the invasions which extinguished antique culture.”
Le Corbusier (2013). City of Tomorrow and Its Planning. Dover Publications, 37.
“Though the parts are beautiful, the whole is ill-shaped. No ruins of the tower are left, which might give form and contrast to the walls and buttresses, and other inferior parts. Instead of this, a number of gable-ends hurt the eye with their regularity, and disgust it by the vulgarity of their shape.”
G.G.J. and J. Robinson (1793). The new annual register, or, General repository of history, politics, and literature, for the year 1792. To which is prefixed the conclusion ... during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 189
Stage 1
The building’s architectural design and construction, probably over a period of time, and possibly on the site of an earlier building.
Stage 2
Its useful life as a group of working buildings with all the alterations and additions that become necessary with changes in taste and use.
Stage 3
The abandonment of the building for occupation or other functions. On monastic sites there is often an immediate period of demolition and robbing; in the case of a domestic or defensive building this even might take the form of fire, siege or obsolescence, and a deliberate slighting.
Stage 4
The building is now a ‘ruin’. A period follows during which the ruins are derelict and the processes of decay advance dilapidation, possibly accompanied by further salvage of building materials and casual use for agriculture or other purposes.
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Stage 5
A period when the visual or ‘picturesque’ value of the ruins is recognised. Some tampering may take place to enhance the visual effect. This period in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries includes the deliberate creation of ruins from historic fabric.
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Stage 6
A period when the historical, as well as the visual, value of the ruin as a monument is recognised and attempts are made to arrest the process of decay and to protect the remains. Records, historical research and accurate drawings are undertaken.
Stage 7
Finally preservation: a period when attempts are made to stabilise the structure, to reinstate the ruin following investigation, possibly including the reassembly of fallen masonry, or even reconstruction with new material.
Gill Chitty (1987) A prospect of ruins, Transactions ASCHB, 12, 43-60.
Motoi Yamamoto (2005). Utsusemi, Installation
“The last hundred years have witnessed the devaluation of monumentality. This does not mean that there is any lack of formal monuments or architectural examples pretending to serve this purpose; but the so-called monuments of recent date have, with rare exceptions, become empty shells. They in no way represent the spirit and the collective feeling of modern times.”
(Fourth point of monumentality)
“Modern materials and new techniques are at hand: light metal structures; curved, laminated wooden arches: panels of different textures, colours, and sizes; light elements like ceilings which can be suspended from big trusses covering practically unlimited spans. Mobile elements can constantly vary the aspect of the buildings. These mobile elements, changing positions and casting different shadows when acted upon by wind or machinery, can be the source of new architectural effects.”
(Ninth point of monumentality)
J. L. Sert, F. Léger, S. Giedion (1943) Nine Points on Monumentality
“It is not incorrect to state that ever since man became aware of the concept of past and future, monuments were valued as symbols.”
Cevat Erder (1986). “Our Architectural Heritage: From Consciousness to Conservation”. UNESCO, 1.
Ai Weiwei (1995). Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, Triptych of Photographs
“We leave traces of ourselves wherever we go, on whatever we touch.”
Lewis Thomas (1990). A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays
Edoardo Tresoldi (2016). Metal Church, Sculpture
Rachel Whiteread (1993). Untitled (House), Sculpture
Do Ho Suh, Installations
The Perfect Home II (2003)
Appartment A, Unit 2, Corridor & Staircase, 348 West 22nd Street (2014)
“We may wish to conserve many different things, from memories or traditions through to objects or places, the tangible and the intangible.”
Kate Clark (2001). “Informed Conservation: Understanding Historic Buildings and their Landscape for Conservation”. English Heritage, 12.
Flores & Prats Architects (2016). Sala Beckett, Spain
“Conservation, at its most basic, involves handing on to future generations what we value. Conservation advisers are not there to stand in the way of change, but to negotiate the transition from the past to present in ways that minimise the damage that change can cause, and maximise the benefits. Conservation is thus a process which seeks both to question change and to reconcile modern needs with the significance of what we have inherited in order to safeguard the interests of future generations.”
Kate Clark (2001). “Informed Conservation: Understanding Historic Buildings and their Landscape for Conservation”. English Heritage, 12.
Damien Hirst (1997-2005). The Immortal, Sculpture
Morris, W., & Morris, M. (1888). The Revival of Architecture, In The Collected Works of William Morris: With Introductions by his Daughter May Morris
“...... Hence arose the fatal practice of “restoration,” which in a period of forty years has done more damage to our ancient buildings than the preceding three centuries of revolutionary violence, sordid greed (utilitarianism so called), and pedantic contempt. This side of the subject I have no space to dwell on further here. I can only say that if my subject could be looked on from no other point of view than the relation of modern architecture to the preservation of these relics of the past, it would be most important to face the facts of the present condition of the art amongst us, lest a mere delusion as to our position should lead us to throw away these treasures which once lost can never be recovered.”
Cecilia Giménez (2012) Ecce Homo, Painting Restoration
Gene Summers (1981), A Letter to Son, A + U [Architecture and Urbanism],182-83.
“Berlage was a man of great seriousness who would not accept anything that was fake and it was he who had said that nothing should be built that is not clearly constructed. And Berlage did exactly that. And he did it to such an extent that his famous building in Amsterdam, The Beurs, has a medieval character without being medieval. He used brick in the way the medieval people did. The idea of a clear construction came to me there, as one of the fundamentals we should accept.”
Le Corbusier (2013). City of Tomorrow and Its Planning. Dover Publications, 31-32.
“... So, to begin, the rude craftsmen of the North who wanted to copy the antique started out, like children, from what they saw, and not from what they knew. Their starting point was the Pantheon, for this seemed good to them but their poor imitations fell to pieces; they knew nothing of the Roman cement, they had no technical means, no implements.”
Vlad Rusu (2012). Cultural Palace Rehabilitation, Romania
Le Corbusier (1986) Towards a new architecture, New York: Dover Publications , 6
MASS-PRODUCED HOUSES
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“A great epoch has begun.
There exists a new spirit.
Industry, overwhelming us like a flood which rolls on towards its destined ends, has furnished us with new tools adapted to this new epoch, animated by the new spirit.
Economic law inevitably governs out acts and our thoughts.
The problem of the house is a problem of the epoch. The equilibrium of society to-day depends upon it. Architecture has for its first duty, in this period of renewal, that of bringing about a revision of values, a revision of the constituent elements of the house...”
David Clarke (2009). Chuffing Marvelous and Friends, Silver Sculpture
Le Corbusier (2013). City of Tomorrow and Its Planning. Dover Publications, xxi
“The DWELLING again puts before us the architectural problem in the demand for totally new methods of building, the problem of new plans adapted to modern life, the problem of an asthetic in harmony with the new spirit.”
David Closes (2011). Convent de Sant Francesc, Spain
José Manuel López Osorio (2016). Baena Castle Restoration, Spain
José Antonio Martínez Lapeña & Elías Torres (1991). Ibizia Castle Renovation, Spain
MAP Architects & Mast Studio (2016). Kalø Tower Visitor Access, Denmark
BFS Design & Juerg Judin (2012). Living & Atelier House Gas Station, Germany
Peter Zumthor (2007). Kolumba Museum, Germany
Ferran Vizoso (2011). Church, Spain
OMA (2016). Il Fondaco dei Tedeschi, Italy
Taylor, Mark C. (2001). The moment of complexity : emerging network culture. Chicago, Ill. ; London : University of Chicago Press. 37.
“Amid simplicity and order rationalism is born, but rationalism proves inadequate in any period of upheaval. Then equilibrium must be created out of opposites. Such inner peace as men gain must represent a tension among contradictions and uncertainties... A feeling for paradox allows seemingly dissimilar things to exist side by side, their very incongruity suggesting a king of truth.”