PLAN 414 Flashcards
ICOMOS Charters
- Define best conservation practices
- Adherence is voluntary
Venice Charter (ICOMOS doc)
- principle document defines universal doctrine of heritage conservation
- Conservation/restoration of monuments
- extends historical monument to include urban and rural setting
- Distinguishes between int (principles guiding work) and national (applying the plan within framework of own culture/traditions)
- influential for future ICOMOS charters
- reflects period of intense reconstruction after wwii
- narrow conservation focused on materialism
Charters
- Adherence is voluntary
- No intrinsic legal status
- International models
Predecessors to charters
- Int. consensus on conservation principles came out of 1850 restore vs anti-restore disagreement
Athens Charter (ICOMOS doc)
- best use is existing use
- Came out of rebuilding of Warsaw which was done quickly/not accurately
- First international conversation charter
- Giovannoni heavily involved
- strong influence by anti-restoration, better to maintain/preserve
- welcomed science and tech (values of time)
- Seven Resolutions
1. establish int. orgs for restoration
2. proposed restoration should be subject to criticism
3. problems preservation historic sites solved at nat. level
4. excavated sites reburied if no immediate restoration
5. modern techniques/tech can be used
6. historical sites should be given strict custodial protection
7. attention should be given to areas around historic sites
Florence Charter (ICOMOS doc)
- fairly dated to it’s time
- emphasizes physical landscapes over aspects of cultural aspects
Burra Charter (ICOMOS doc)
- principles/procedures for Australia
- important innovations: place and cultural significance
- place replaces Venice Charters ‘mouments & sites’
- respect existing, minimal intervention
- balances tangible and intangible
- Set standard for understanding cultural significance, it has to come before policy and management and done through research
- Sets purpose for interpretation cause cultural significance is not readily apparent and should be explained through interpretation
Nara Document on Authenticity (ICOMOS doc)
6i 6 b-japan concerned about their way of conservation: periodically rebuilding structures with new materials
- authenticity:clarify and illuminate collective memory of humanity
- places cultural diversity first, more focused on intangible
- authenticity may be in act not the tangible
Paris Declaration (ICOMOS doc)
- incorporating heritage into the development process
Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (UNESCO Convention) (a.k.a Hague Convention)
- defines cultural property, archaeological sites etc.
- addresses ways to identify and safeguard cultural property
- 1st international treaty to focus on heritage during armed conflict
- referred to state to state conflict, so it has flaws, could enforce individual criminal acts, terrorism, intrastate war
Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (UNESCO doc)
- set up world heritage list
- defined cultural landscape
Convention for the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO doc)
- set up list of intangible heritage and list of intangible heritage in need of urgent safeguarding
European Charter
- diff from ICOMOS charters at time
- focuses on towns, groups of lesser buildings, socio-economic values with a nod to environment (precursor to pillars of sustainability)
Venice Charter
- differentiated between conservation and reservation
- Former = umbrella term, ladder = revealing the past values of a monument (returning it to the appearance of an earlier stage of dev)
Conservation
- all the processes of looking after a place so as to retain its cultural significance
- all-inclusive term
- may embrace change
Preservation
- maintaining a place in its existing state and retarting deterioration
- similar to maintenance and repair (but, preservation is not a series of ongoing activities - usually a one-time intervention)
- same objectives as ‘anti-restoration’
- may retain both tangible and intangible cultural heritage
Preserving the Great Mosque at Djenne
- mosque is a world heritage site as it was a former centre for the diffusion of Islam in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
- effects of weather on the mud finish may annual maintenance essential
- Every year, the entire community participates in an annual festival (le crepissage de la grande mosque) to help maintain
- In 2006, it was declared in danger of collapse and began extensive restoration
- Festival returned in 2012 - increased local morale and values
Restoration
- returning a place to a known earlier state by removing accretion or by reassembling existing elements without the introduction of new material
- intention is to reveal its appearance from its period of greatest significance
- features that never existed should not be added
- should only take place if sufficient evidence
- may involve the permanent loss of historical fabric that is later in date than the restoration period
period restoration
-a place is returned to its appearance at an earlier time
composite restoration
-significant features from all historical periods are left intact, but allowing the removal of material judged to be of little or no cultural significance (may be considered preservation)
SPNEA
- Society for the preservation of New England antiquities
- Non-profit organization founded in 1910 which began making a portfolio of restored early buildings, converted to museums
- Preservation was preferred treatment
Rehabilitation (canada, US) / adaptation (australia)
- modifying a property to enable an efficient contemporary use, whether this is the existing use or a proposed use
- done by retaining those components that contribute to its cultural significance and adding to those that do not
- typically occurs to meet building codes and ordinances
- use of building may continue or be stopped (adaptive reuse may require extensive modifications)
Reconstruction
- returning a place to a known earlier state and includes the introduction of new materials
- highly specialized and should only be completed when necessary
- Venice Charter forbids reconstruction
Old Warsaw and the Frauenkirche
- 85% of historic city of Warsaw was destroyed during WW2 including the church
- Before the war, the Warsaw technical university had documented much of the city’s cultural heritage
- city and church was rebuilt by polish authorities
Risks of reconstruction
- may damage or destroy the original archaeological record
- physical fabric of reconstruction usually lacks cultural significance and is considered less authentic
- it is important the reconstructions do not repeat design errors of original designs
stabalization
-minimum amount of work needed to safegaurd a historic place from elements and/or collapse
rescue archeology
-applied to remains that are exposed or threatened by active development
consolidation
-reinforcement of a deteriorated feature, often by physical application of adhesives or supports within the material to achieve structural integrity
replication
-copying a prototype that still exists
reassembly (reconstitution)
-components of a dismantled historic place are put back together (called anastylosis in the Venice Charter)
moving
-relocating a building or structure to another site (usually as a last resort to demolition)
fragmentation
-portions of a historic place are retained and reassembled, either on the original site or somewhere else
facadism (or facadotomy)
-variation of fragmentation where the facade of a building is retained and all else is rebuilt
renovation
-extensive changes and/or additions to a historic place in a process of renewal (internal or external)
Combining treatments
- in many cases, more than on method of conservation treatment is often applied to a historic place (as per Burra Charter)
- heritage planning process should define the primary conservation treatment and secondary treatments
Combing treatments - e.g. the Reichstag
- built in 1894 to accommodate the parliament of imperial Germany
- destroyed by fire in 1945
- exterior walls were restored, wartime scars and graffiti were preserved
- damaged and missing exterior features were restored
- interior was renovated, etc.
Lack of standards and guidelines in charters
- principles in charters are far too general and do not carry weight of enforceability
- e.g. Burra Charter - “aim of conservation is to retain cultural significance of a place”
- therefore, a series of manuals were developed (e.g. conservation plan of historic buildings)
- still remains a disconnect between conservation charters and actual conservation work
the introduction of standards and guidelines
- US led the way with standards and guidelines
- standards, aka principles, are quite conceptual
- guidelines are more practica;
The secretary of the interior’s standards and guidelines for rehabilitation, 1976
- introduced y the US national park service
- key step in addressing the theoretical nature and non-enforceability of best practices
American system for overseeing rehabilitation is based on 2 significant federal laws. The first is:
- national preservation act of 1966, which established
- national register of historic places
- administrative system left by state historic preservation officers (SHPOs)
- grants through the historic preservation fund
- technical assistance to owners of historic places
American system for overseeing rehabilitation is based on 2 significant federal laws. The second is:
- tax reform act of 1976, which provides financial incentives for rehabilitation
- projects wanting to benefit from the incentives must follow the standards for rehabilitation, clarified in the guidelines for preserving, rehabilitating, restoring & reconstructing historic buildings
- national park service has produced separate guidelines to address the treatment of cultural heritage landscapes
