#reconstruction – @nickkahler on Tumblr

A new design that is formally indistinguishable from its host context is the ultimate contextualist gesture, one in which the new does not just come in the shape of the old but rather arrives as a subtle and imperceptible supplement to it.

Jorge Otero-Pailos, “OMA’s Preservation Manifesto” from Preservation is Overtaking Us, 2014

#jorge otero-pailos #quote #historic preservation #preservation #design #architecture #context #gesture #host #new #old #age #restoration #reconstruction #shape #supplement #arrival

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All agreed that the amenities of the past couldn’t be restored at once; destruction is an easier, speedier process than reconstruction.

Albert Camus, The Plague, 1947

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A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it.

John le Carre, “On Espionage,” c. 2000

#john le carre #espionage #spy #writer #life #mainstream #population #steal #experience #bribe #reconstruction #design #art #quote #favorite #fringe #periphery

nickkahler

America [is] a country obsessed with realism, where if a reconstruction is to be credible, it must be absolutely iconic, a perfect likeness, a 'real' copy of the reality being represented.

Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyperreality, c. 1986 (via hoekstra)

#umberto eco #travel #america #united states #realism #reconstruction #iconic #historic preservation #icon #perfect #copy #real #walter benjamin #mario carpo #time #space #lit #literature #essay #obsession #culture

nickkahler reblogged

archiveofaffinities

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Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Fantasy Composition Featuring the Remains of Ancient Baths with Greek Doric Columns, c. 1760 (via archiveofaffinities)

#piranesi #giovanni battista piranesi #fantasy #composition #remain #ruin #bath #doric #column #antiquity #reconstruction #imagination #drawing #architecture #art

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John Ray, Possible Reconstruction of the Rosetta Stone as Fragment of Original Stele, c. 2007

#john ray #stele #reconstruction #tablet #history #rosetta stone #fragment #monument #architecture #stone #language #artifact #archaeology #linguistics #text #egypt #antiquity

nickkahler

Let me picture to you the footsore Confederate soldier, as, buttoning up in his faded gray jacket the parole which was to bear testimony to his children of his fidelity and faith, he turned his face southward from Appomattox in April, 1865. Think of him as ragged, half-starved, heavy-hearted, enfeebled by want and wounds; having fought to exhaustion, he surrenders his gun, wrings the hands of his comrades in silence, and lifting his tear-stained and pallid face for the last time to the graves that dot the old Virginia hills, pulls his gray cap over his brow and begins the slow and painful journey. What does he find—let me ask you, who went to your homes eager to find in the welcome you had justly earned, full payment for four years’ sacrifice—what does he find when, having followed the battle-stained cross against overwhelming odds, dreading death not half so much as surrender, he reaches the home he left so prosperous and beautiful? He finds his house in ruins, his farm devastated, his slaves free, his stock killed, his barns empty, his trade destroyed, his money worthless; his social system, feudal in its magnificence, swept away; his people without law or legal status, his comrades slain, and the burdens of others heavy on his shoulders. Crushed by defeat, his very traditions are gone; without money, credit, employment, material or training; and, besides all this, confronted with the gravest problem that ever met human intelligence—the establishing of a status for the vast body of his liberated slaves. What does he do — this hero in gray with a heart of gold? Does he sit down in sullenness and despair? Not for a day.

Henry W. Grady, "Creed of the New South," 1886 (via learnc)

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Jack Pyburn of Lord Aeck Sargent, Diagram of Historic Preservation, 2014

"All preservation is in the present seeking to link the past into the future. It is research-based design based on intervention, and conceptualized as one of four types of architectural treatments:

Preservation (n): The act or process of applying measures necessary to sustain the existing form, integrity, and materials of an historic property. Work, including preliminary measures to protect and stabilize the property, generally focuses upon the ongoing maintenance and repair of historic materials and features rather than extensive replacement and new construction. New exterior additions are not within the scope of this treatment; however, the limited and sensitive upgrading of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and other code-required work to make properties functional is appropriate within a preservation project.
Restoration (n): Focuses on the retention of materials from the most significant time in a property's history, while permitting the removal of materials from other periods. Historic use will be continued; any new use should reflect the property’s restoration period. Archaeological resources should be protected and preserved in place, not disturbed or removed. Work should be physically and visually compatible with existing material, identifiable upon close inspection, and properly documented for future research.
Reconstruction (n): Reconstruction is defined as the act or process of depicting, by means of new construction, the form, features, and detailing of a non-surviving site, landscape, building, structure, or object for the purpose of replicating its appearance at a specific period of time and in its historic location.
Rehabilitation (n): Defined as the act or process of making possible a compatible use for a property through repair, alterations, and additions while preserving those portions or features which convey its historical, cultural, or architectural values."

Historic Preservation does not have a treatment described as "adaptive (re)use", because the users adapt the space as soon as the project is opened. Additionally, Historic Preservation dismisses the term "renovation" as it indicates thoughtless treatments of existing structures.