(2021) «Picornell, Mercè. "Sumar les restes. Ruïnes i mals endreços en la cultura catalana postfranquista". Edicions UIB, Biblioteca Miquel dels Sants Oliver, 54. Barcelona / Palma: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 2020, 318 pp.» (original) (raw)
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Ruins: Between Past and Present, Between Culture and Nature
Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture, 2023
The main question of the essay is: do ruins need a new definition? Ruins are not only destroyed architecture, but also everything that has been associated with it in the process of life. From the perspective of the question, the concept of ruins should be understood much broader than just architecturally, and they should be assigned not to the past but to the present, or rather between past and present. If we consider ruins from the standpoint which situates them between culture and nature, there opens up another opportunity: here ruins are found on the juncture of nature and culture, becoming a natureculture hybrid. Here, degradation encompasses the cultural sense in the first place and the expectations it involves, but not from the perspective of nature. The order of nature translates into a new "life" of the ruin, which is attributed a new functionality, subordinated to other-non-anthropocentric-goals and values. Concluding, ruins require a new approach and a new definition that does not condemn them to degradation, but sees hope in the revitalizing forces of nature that ensure for them a new status and a different ontological significance.
New abandoned places: side effects of the “Miracle Architecture” in Spain
ArcHistor EXTRA, 2020
This research starts by acknowledging the central role of the idea of "ruins" and "abandoned place" in the contemporary architectural debate related to the future of neglected, degraded or simply not used spaces, which tend to rapidly become underlying ruins of the contemporaneity. This process is in fact often facilitated by a society where building is increasingly harder and the social, cultural and economic development is always unpredictable. The unusual fact, which is basically the central idea of this research, is the juxtaposition, which sounds like an oxymoron, of the two ideas of "ruins" and "contemporaneity" to explain a situation which is common in most of our cities where neglected places or even places which have never been used are abandoned. This situation shows that buildings and structures belonging to a "recent past" need an urgent upgrade and a new definition. A combination of elements sharing the same questions about the preservation and modification of the present heritage, the importance of the past for the future, the cultural and symbolic reference which should be preserved in our global society. Analysing these new circumstances, focusing on methods and strategies to recover or transform the reality is fundamental. It is possible to define two main - and somehow opposite - opinions: on one hand we have the conservation of the past, while on the other hand the past is transformed in order to be progressively "removed" to then regenerate and be reborn. Marc Augé's theory in his "Time in ruins" combines the two positions, identifying a dialectic between the ideas of "remains" and "ruins" which are both important in the process of modification. While normally the ruin is seen in a negative way as a group of objects which cannot be used anymore as they were meant to, the French anthropologist theorises an opinion which is more positive, where these objects can be transformed to take on a new meaning -social as well - for the present as "contemporary ruins". This leads us to reword the question which our research is based on: is a theorisation of "contemporary ruins" possible? Starting from the abandoned structures of the present, is the process of transformation in order to create new places with spatial and social meaning possible? If it is, which methods and strategies can be used?
Save the Heritage Benefit Corporation (ed.). Life within ruins Essays on architecture restoration theory, 2022
George Simmel, in his famous essay Ruins written in 1911, observes that a ruin is an artifact that, on the one side, evokes the memory of how it had been used by men and that, on the other side, collapses under the force of Nature. The sprout of Nature inside a building - that was originally excluded from its original functional program - is a manifestation of new aesthetic concepts. In 2005, Giorgio Agamben claims that today what was once sacred cannot be profaned anymore because it allows only uses that are coherent with its actual state. For example, the ruins of an ancient building allow only its consumption for touristic uses. The Italian philosopher then advances the hypothesis that such a mechanism can be profaned only with an act of nonchalance typical of art. This paper aims to investigate practices of profanation of the monument apparatus. The profanation of ruins is thus understood as a process of invading the perimeter that separates the inside from the outside. This investigation will be conducted presenting some collage works that challenge the meaning of preservation and envision some radical ways to re-use and re-signify a ruin.
Studies in History and Theory of Architecture, 2023
In the present paper I collect some material for a cultural history of the inhabited ruin, still missing in the otherwise vast scienti(c literature on ruins. I argue that inhabitability needs to be acknowledged as a key characteristic of ruins, and that art historical and archaeological evidence substantiates the claim that there is no actual hiatus between the non-ruined and the ruined. Whether the rationale for dwelling in the ruins is pragmatical, symbolic, aesthetic, moral, sociopolitical or philosophical, the phenomenon needs to be mapped in detail. I take my cue from Georg Simmel’s bewohnte Ruine, and complement it with Heidegger’s insights. I then discuss speci(c instances of inhabitable ruins from the Casa dei Crescenzi to Piranesi and Hubert Robert. Among the case studies are Giulio Romano’s Palazzo del Te, Clérisseau’s Stanza delle Rovine, and particularly François de Monville’s residential Broken column in the Désert de Retz. Ultimately, in this brief investigation I will address why and how ruins have been, since the Trecento, construed as inhabitable by trees, by people, and by other buildings.
Ruin and architectural heritage in Brazil: memory and oblivion
Revista Virus, 2018
This article aims to present how Brazilian preservation policies identify architectural remnants in a state of ruin as cultural assets, focusing on the monuments listed by the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute (IPHAN, as the acronym in Portuguese). Such study starts from the question: what can be considered a ruin? We consider a ruin as a condition of decharacterization of architectural assets from any age, affected by degradations for different reasons. Different variables make complex their understanding: cause, degree and time elapsed from the beginning of the process of ruining, age and conditions of the building’s usage. Once combined, such variables direct interpretations, suggesting the organization of this analysis into three groups: ruins of time, ruins of negligence and ruins of the incident. In this structure, we find that there is a major impasse in identifying and assigning values to the ruins within the Brazilian preservation policies: how much is it desired to historicize the ruin status? In the key of memory and oblivion that are the conflicting paths of history, ruins play an essential role because of its dual informative capacity of reminiscence and loss. They are therefore dynamic records to establish a new fruition in the cognitive processes of the construction of memory.
Thinking Through Ruins: Genealogies, Functions, and Interpretations
Thinking Through Ruins: Genealogies, Functions, and Interpretations, 2022
Ruins have for a long time captured the human imagination and, in one way or another, have been inscribed in a community’s memory, history, or lore. This long-standing tradition concerning ruins – be it real or imagined, ancient or modern ones – has resulted in a multitude of reflections and creative interpretations. The discourse on ruins, steeped in tradition as it is, offers a unique vantage point to reflect upon their actual meaning in various societies and disciplines by focusing on how they have been and still are often (mis)used and employed in contemporary debates as powerful symbols and motifs. Tackling questions related to the genealogies, functions, and interpretations of ruins in literary and artistic, political and legal, philosophical and sociological discourses, this book aims at moving the discussion beyond the level of case studies. The contributors examine the perception of ruins and the discourse on decay, destruction, and reconstruction from various disciplinary perspectives, referring to a multitude of ruin-related concepts such as ‘longing’, ‘memory’, ‘trauma’, and ‘identity’.
Rise of the Fallen: (New) Ruins Role in Shaping Cultural Understandings
TERRITORIO, 80, (18-22), 2017
Ruins capture our imagination, mysterious, full of hints of the past, and futures' potential. In a world that struggles to protect and decipher its logic; ruins put up an obscure mirror. They are illogical, dysfunctional, and disorderly; they expose mankind's faults and shortcomings. Ruins nurture creativity and playful-ness, spark philosophical contemplation, and inspire unpredicted prospects. The paper takes a look at the characteristics of (new) ruins, and analyzes their unique atmosphere. It contends that (new)ruins is a phenomena that needs to be reinterpreted as a 'Non-Complete' condition; as such the (new)ruin has a role in shaping cultural understandings. Following current social and economic changes, globalization disposition, and technological developments, the abundance of (new)ruins rise as a constant presence. During the several past decades, the ruination process has greatly accelerated, turning large industrial complexes, whole cities, and even regions into abounded ruins. (New)ruins unpredictable way of emergence has spread them on a varied range of localities, from the marginal to the condensed urban. The process by which architecture becomes a ruin over a long period of time, has changed dramatically. Buildings gain their ruin state, long before they managed to fulfill their intended purpose. (New) ruins become established, as such, during the life time of its visionaries. Ruins expose binary oppositions; they represent failure and achievement, attract and repulse. Ruins are objects of desire and disgust; exposing presence and absence, power and vulnerability (fig.1). Ruins have ambiguous atmosphere, imaginative forms, and sensual materiality. Stripped bare of their function they are 'static architecture' yet they constantly transform, generating strong emotional response and evolving symbolic meaning (Harbison, 2000). The role of ruins as negotiating the past, authorizing the present, and influencing the future is a source for intriguing discourse. The (new)ruin phenomena is characterized by its nature and presence in our culture, not only its physical presence but also by the abundance of cultural manifestations. This is revealed by a range of poetic literary references, and a swell of websites devoted to (new)ruins expressiveness, use, and dilemmas (DeSilvey & Edensor, 2013). The paper begins by a brief overview of the attitude toward ruins, it then suggests understanding (new)ruins as a 'Non-complete' condition, this is followed by analyzing architectural and conceptual aspects of (new)ruins.
From 'remains' to 'ruins'. The aesthetic value of abandoned historical towns
The phenomenon of the abandonment of historical towns testifies the complex and fragile equilibrium between human settlement strategies and multiple factors that influence their dynamics: slow and diffuse over decades or more sudden and drastic, these latter could be considered as the result of the overlapping of economic and social issues. In most cases, instead, there are natural disasters, as floods, landslides and earthquakes that compromise the safety conditions of the historical centers and determine the ‘forced’ departure of their inhabitants. In those places, partially or totally abandoned, the damages due to those events and the absence of people activate accelerated mechanisms of degradation and consumption which, if not arrested, can lead to an inevitable and rapid loss of the heritage. The conservation of the ‘ghost towns’, diffused in whole Italian territory and concentrated along central-southern Apennines, represents, therefore, a complex cultural challenge in which are involved psychological, social, technical and economical issues. In order to adequately commensurate the strategies of intervention is fundamental to identify the multiplicity of tangible and intangible values kept in the so-called ‘poor architectures’. The recognition of the extraordinary documentary value offered by these structures with respect to the understanding of traditional building techniques and use of vernacular materials and the analysis of multiple failure mechanisms readable in the ancient palimpsest, are accompanied by the possibility to identify an added value in their mutilated status. Exceeding, in fact, the negative meaning of ‘remain’ as fragment devoid of its potential unit, in function of the positive one of ‘ruin’, considered as a new formal unit, it is possible to identify in those architectures a deeper aesthetic value. The condition of incompleteness, consumption, and collapse, while testifies the loss, on the other hand, leads to a 'reassuring' image of 'purely natural existence' in which the remains take part materially and chromatically in the landscape surrounding. According to these considerations, and through the interpretation of some case-studies concerning towns abandoned after natural disasters, the contribution aims at focusing the possibility of considering the conservation in ruin of whole or of a part of the architectures of those towns in order to preserve their figurative values and to ensure their aesthetic enjoyment as a strategy integrated in the more complex restoration approach.
The "Sacrality" of Ruins in the context of Sustainability
URBAN REGENERATION and HISTORIC CENTER Vision from Tabriz, a Silk Road City, 2019
Sustainability is a comprehensive common theme that is identified in most areas that govern contemporary society. Relying on this background, heritage needs to find a sustainable integration towards the mutations of contemporary cities. The article aims to highlight the sacrality of ruins, understood not strictly from the spiritual point of view, but more as a way of understanding our patrimony in terms of protection and conservation. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to understand that only by taking care of those complex elements that enrich the world with cultural values can humanity safely go forward. It would be a symbolic approach to how heritage became a cultural issue, extremely important for the next generations.
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B. Olsen and Þ. Pétursdóttir (eds.) Ruin Memories: Materiality, Aesthetics and the Archaeology of the Recent Past. London: Routledge, 2014