We tend to mourn the daily losses, but since the foundation of heritage preservation, the number of listed architectural monuments has constantly increased. Ever new building typologies, historic periods, and categories of material heritage have been deemed worthy of preservation. While the absolute number of listed objects is still insignificant in regard to the building stock as a whole, in some areas, it may appear as if anything of old is already protected for good. In regard to this view, the architectural legacy of the recent past needs special advocacy. Why add new monuments to an already crowded inventory? And how to choose from the rather young bulk of our built environment?
Today’s inventories have in fact a history of their one, accumulating over time previous appropriation and valorisation. Such historic processes can be considered as production of heritage. While the specific instruments and forms changed over time – and are about to change dramatically in the face of digital applications – the inventories represent the development of our understanding of history. Also, the documents which resulted from the study of old buildings have an immediate effect on the way these objects are further treated, reappreciated and reused. Thus, the question may not be what is to be considered as building heritage, but how and to what purpose.
In the talk, the historic development of building heritage conservation (Denkmalpflege) in Switzerland and Germany will be discussed not as a reaction against modernity, to contain or hold off its disruptive powers, but rather as a process strangely ingrained in modern transformation itself. Thus, listed and protected building heritage is not to be considered as something distinct from the building stock as a whole, to be treated differently from normal. On the contrary, it is from the objects we care most, our architectural monuments, we can and should learn in regard to the everyday practice of adaptive reuse and renewal. The significance of such a change in perspective for the upkeeping of our recent building heritage specifically will be exemplified by a comparison of current architectural approaches.
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We tend to mourn the daily losses, but since the foundation of heritage preservation, the number of listed architectural monuments has constantly increased. Ever new building typologies, historic periods, and categories of material heritage have been deemed worthy of preservation. While the absolute number of listed objects is still insignificant in regard to the building stock as a whole, in some areas, it may appear as if anything of old is already protected for good. In regard to this view, t...
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