Visualizing Traces of Destruction
Urban, Florian and Platt, Christopher (2016) Visualizing Traces of Destruction. In: 42nd Annual Conference of the Association of Art Historians, 7-9 April 2016, University of Edinburgh, UK.
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Creators/Authors: | Urban, Florian and Platt, Christopher | ||||||
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Abstract: | Our paper will present a current example of architectural design that conserves traces of past destruction: the Linsiadar House on the Isle of Lewis, designed in 2011 by studio KAP, Christopher Platt’s architectural practice. We argue that the visualization of such traces of the past is a timely reconciliation of the century-old controversy between John Ruskin’s famous dictum “conserve, don’t restore” and Viollet-le-Duc’s call for rebuilding destroyed structures in the spirit of the past. The strategy applied in the Linsiadar House is not only appropriate for the present time in which, at a global level, living in an historic building has become the exception rather than the rule. It is equally significant for any environment in which the obliteration of destructive impact would mean to eradicate uncomfortable parts of history. This applies not only to buildings that stood at the forefront of political debate such as St Michael’s Cathedral in Coventry or the Neues Museum in Berlin, but similarly to more humble structures that bear witness to the disruptions of the past. | ||||||
Output Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) | ||||||
Uncontrolled Keywords: | historic conservation, conservation theory, Linsiadar House, KAP architects, adaptive reuse | ||||||
Schools and Departments: | Mackintosh School of Architecture Mackintosh School of Architecture > History of Architecture & Urban Studies (HAUS) | ||||||
Dates: |
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Status: | Published | ||||||
Event Title: | 42nd Annual Conference of the Association of Art Historians | ||||||
Event Location: | University of Edinburgh, UK | ||||||
Event Dates: | 7-9 April 2016 | ||||||
Output ID: | 4824 | ||||||
Deposited By: | Florian Urban | ||||||
Deposited On: | 11 Oct 2016 09:41 | ||||||
Last Modified: | 10 Dec 2018 10:56 |