Architecture and Temporality in Conservation Theory: The Modern Movement and the Restoration Attitude in Cesare Brandi (original) (raw)

This paper focuses on theoretical issues of architectural conservation, especially the influential ‘Theory of Restoration’ by Cesare Brandi, and other of his writings. His proposals are both an advanced explanation of restoration and a guide for practice; not only in art conservation, but in architecture in particular. Brandi’s theory seems limited to the work of art as such, and hence is detached from an existential understanding of the human being, offering but a partial account of the relation between humans and Modern Movement architecture. Existentialist concern about collective intentionalities is crucial here, because architecture is bearer of socially significant values, particularly historic significance and collective memory. Awareness about existentialist issues of temporality in conservation has been offered before in the past by several authors. However, these reflections have mainly focused on the past and perhaps the present, but rarely the future. Authors have regarded the problem from a postmodern, relativist perspective; ignoring the manifold condition of architecture; others have characterised conservation as based on changing values in society, seemingly encouraging attitudes of ‘everything goes’. This paper approaches the problem of conservation by uncovering attitudes behind Brandi’s theories, and by envisaging a more comprehensive consideration of time in the relation between architectural place and human existence. The phenomenological ontology proposed by Roman Ingarden and the illuminating treatise about memory by Paul Ricoeur support an approach to memory and the complete spectrum of time which considers conservation and assimilation as processes that facilitate society to accept changes in its environment. The aim of this paper is to assess ontological and phenomenological assumptions regarding architecture and time against Brandi’s theories, and to evaluate their correlation in the context of the architecture of the Modern Movement. This connection between Brandi’s theories about architecture as art and his concept of restoration elucidates his attitude regarding time and memory as well as revealing certain inconsistencies with regard to Modern Movement architecture.