Introduction
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Theme 2 Session 3 INTRODUCTION SAVOIR HABITER, RÉUTILISER, RÉINVENTER Vice-Chair ADAPTING TO SUSTAINABLE LIVING, Vice-président EXPERTISE IN RE-USE, EXPERTISE IN BUILDING John Hurd President of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Earthen Architectural Heritage (ICOMOS UK) Président du Comité scientifique international de l'ICOMOS sur le patrimoine de l'architecture en terre (ICOMOS UK) [email protected] As vice chair of this session on the programme for which had been developed as a colonial capital by adaptive reuse, “defining the limits of carrying capacity the British, I love the architecture of Lutyens, who for heritage assets”, I am not on solid ground and seemed to reflect and build on the great historic therefore my brief introduction will be a personal view city of Shahjehanabad, which surrounded the British and a philosophical view of the architecture that we empire’s axis of the Rajpath. Delhi was a city that was will consider and importantly the cultural framework developed around firm historic traditions and the in which it exists. addition of a British colonial quarter seemed to be I confess to being something of a Luddite. A Luddite not entirely shocking, but a grand synthesis of the was a textile artisan in 19th Century Britain who existing traditions, materials and decoration. For me, was a lover of the wooden loom and who destroyed there was a clear transmission that reflected and built infernal modern machines. I love the old and until quite on tradition. recently, the new, especially the new architecture of the metropolis not only left me cold, but it frightened Here and now, I am obliged to consider the reason for me and took me far from my comfort zone. my years of dislike of very modern, boxlike architecture When I pass a building designed by Mies Van der Rohe, and the answer lies in the use of materials. I look down at the pavement and pass as quickly as I It seems now that the old building materials, earth am able. The same is not true of all buildings of the [my specialism], wood, stone and brick, feel safe and modern era, as I walk along 42nd street in New York huggable, like a sort of safe haven, a pillar of reality I am capable of standing for a long time wondering and this is a reasonable feeling. It keeps me in touch at the beauty of grand central station or the Chrysler with thousands of years of history, of empirical building and delighting in their architectural detail and understanding and development of styles with which I decoration, no matter how redundant this may be. The feel comfortable. Steel, glass and concrete has perhaps impact of the greater shape of the building is softened always felt cold and threatening to me. and in some way humanised by the juxtaposition of a So the question, which is slowly starting to unravel for range of materials and their details. me, is why does one comfort and one threaten? I was in Helsinki last year, and experienced a great leap Politically and socially I am fairly radical, but in some forward in the appreciation of modern architecture, conditions of life I realise, with some shame, that I am having been given a compulsory tour of the work of very conservative. Alvar Aalto. As the tour, under the guidance of Kirsti Kovanen developed, I began to understand the quality During my life I realise that I no longer belong to one in the holistic approach of this very sensitive architect nation, I regard myself as a citizen of the world and feel and the materials that he chose to use, revealing comfortable with the understanding that the world is interesting detail in what would once have been boring full of different cultures, cultures with diverse values rectangles. I understood that Aalto was reaching out and diverse expressions in the traditional form of an for something new, an ideal of the modern life and architecture that celebrates the differences. culture intended to be comfortable and practical This does not mean that I strive for “one world” rather than challenging; my defences dropped. culture, indeed, I love to see a building that allows me If we look at my favourite city of New/old Delhi, to define, in its style and decoration, the culture in LE PATRIMOINE, MOTEUR DE DÉVELOPPEMENT 378 HERITAGE, DRIVER OF DEVELOPMENT Theme 2 Session 3 which it originates: it is the differences that I celebrate. The main function of cultural heritage is, in my view, a question of humanity, a reflection of values, local I love artisanship, the hands of the craftswoman or man, values that allow us to better understand the subtlety the finger marks in an earth plaster, the individuality of and sensitivities of a culture, allow us to explore and a stone relief, the tool marks of the carpenter. better understand spirit of belonging, sense of place…. Modern building gives me little satisfaction here and self respect and so to me heritage architecture is a tool so I struggle to find meaning, noticing the imprint of of peace, a tool of the celebration of the kaleidoscope the wooden shuttering on a cast concrete wall, or the of cultural accents and individual cultural expression spot of rust in the steel frame that allows me to find a within an ever more global language. sort of human meaning in the architecture. Today I expect the speakers to raise my own capacity In many places, if I look at traditional buildings, the to appreciate recent developments and I expect to selection of materials is based upon what is accessible learn a great deal from the papers given and hope to locally and rather than appreciating the differences see strong cultural expressions within the adaptive INTRODUCTION nationally, the differences become very local, village reuse of existing architecture within this theme of the re-use, expertise building in to village, town to town. In a photograph of a structure return to the art of building. in Mali for instance, we can not only define that the building is typically Malian, but we can also understand which part of Mali, which tradition, which local culture savoir habiter, réutiliser, réinventer réutiliser, habiter, savoir created it. In my field of earthen architecture, the modern adapting to sustainable living, expertise in expression is starting to look very much the same across the world, “sustainable” architecture, all looks very similar to me, a global standard representing a rise in performance, a reduction of cost, both financial and in terms of effort but also a demolition of local pride of expression and a loss of architectural diversity. If I see a modern sustainable building, the language that it uses tends to be global and I cannot read the local origin of the structure and you can then understand my confusion with modern style where architecture in concrete, glass and steel does not reflect local cultural values, but global ones and through with the further lack of decorative motifs which belong to a particular tribe or regional culture, I am left unfulfilled, uninformed, isolated. I cannot read any cultural message in this architecture but alas only a demolition of local cultural identity and a loss of architectural diversity. Why is this even important? LE PATRIMOINE, MOTEUR DE DÉVELOPPEMENT 379 HERITAGE, DRIVER OF DEVELOPMENT Theme 2 Session 3 MODELS OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT: EXAMPLES IN Communication non présentée BOLOGNA Paper not presented Luca Cipriani, Massimo Ballabeni DAPT, Faculty of Engineering of Bologna, Italy [email protected], [email protected] Abstract. The research identifies and describes the evolution rules used for the maintenance and regeneration of urban spaces, searching in the city growth patterns emerged in the course of its historical development and characterized by the transformation processes that develop on socio-economic forces that do not conform to urban “pre-defined” planning policies. These researches are of great interest for the parts of territory created by recent developments of the city which need a redesign aimed at the regeneration of places and redefinition of territorial systems, with the recovery of a sense of membership and community living. Therefore the study of some historical "ways" of re-definition of the urban fabric of Bologna is of great interest. The study of the implementation of the Portico of Banchi in Piazza Maggiore, a masterpiece of Vignola in the second half of the sixteenth century, shows an early example of urban intervention of completion and re-building, defining a mode of intervention that Bologna will adopt and use as a strategy of intervention for the next four hundred years. The study of parallel evolution of the Portico of Banchi, of the plain part of the Portico of San Luca and Alemanni, shows the general development strategy of the city by the overlap of new items to the existing building and offers significant incentives to conceive new ideas for the present. These modes of development let entire urban sectors maintain a specific identity in their evolution. This identity has been lost in successive urban plans which didn’t care about historical developmental characters, violating the rules of expansion of the historic town and obstructing the continuity and the interweaving of new buildings with existing ones. The research identifies and describes some evolu- the local “Portico” (arcade) in Bologna. Arcades are tion rules that can be used for the maintenance and reviewed in this reserach as basic elements of co- regeneration of urban spaces by searching in the city herent strategies of "regeneration" of urban places. growth patterns emerged in the course of its histo- These strategies responded to different needs and rical development characterized by transformation requirements, which led to uniform and sustainable processes that develop on socio-economic forces urban solutions.