RECOVERING ARCHITECTURE

BARCELONA PAVILION. J. LL. SERT AND L. LACASA (19391. REBUILT BY M. ESPIb'FT - A A'JBACP - ' A"~D"'~NDEZ (1992)

THERECOVERY OF OUR HISTORICAL HERITAGE HAS BEEN FUNDAMENTAL IN ROUSING COLLECTIVE MEMORES AND HAS MADE A LEADING CONTRIBUTION TO THE REDISCOVERY OF A PAST WHICH WILL ONLY BE A TANGIBLE GUARANTEE OF THE PRESENT THROUGH THE MATERIALITY OF ITS SIGNS. PATl DE LES DONES. FORMER CHARITY HOUSE, BARCELONA. ARCH. H. PINON AND A. VIAPLANA

atalonia, like the rest of the na- Nevertheless, this situation, cornmon to the exalted conservation and confrontation tions of Europe, has a considera- whole of the old world, has a particular with tradition. This unresolved conflict is Qble quantity of buildings of good political significance in our country. The the central issue in the debate on strate- quality which have becorne signs of our end of the dictatorshi~and the beginning gies for action on the heritage; a debate collective identity. This wealth is a prod- of the transition to dernocracy and horne which is present in our country and which uct of the logical accurnulation that has rule, which took place in Catalonia twenty. is being presented here through a dis- taken place over centuries of history, from years ago, set off an exciting collective cussion of some of the questions it raises. early Greek constructions to more recent process of identification with the idea of One approach sets out to assess the es- conternporary work. But it can also be at- nationhood, which was inseparable frorn sential value of historical buildings, ques- tributed to the need our way of life gen- our recently recovered liberties. In this tioning the convenience of rnaintaining or erates of inhabiting, or being in a place context, the recovery of our historical he- renewing a specific function for these with which we can identify, which we can ritage, as well as of the institutions, tra- buildings other than the transrnission of feel part of as the recipients of a past and ditions and ideas that had been dormant their syrnbolic value. Whatever the case, of a proiect. This existential need for his- since the Spanish civil war, was funda- using historic sites involves structural torical reference points -which probably mental in rousing collective rnernories and work which will cause changes to the looks to the past for the stable values lack- rnade a leading contribution to the redis- building's appearance. These changes ing in the conternporary world- leads to covery of a past which can only be a tan- can only be assessed on the basis of var- a constant increase in cultural interests. gible guarantee of the present through the iable criteria that fluctuate frorn one rno- Hence the shift in society frorn an atti- rnateriality of its signs. rnent of history to another and frorn one tude of ignorance and unconcern as re- The selection of buildings and urban corn- culture to another. In addition, we have gards the accurnulated heritage to one plexes for which protection is requested to rernernber that total conservation is irn- that values vestiges of the past as cultur- is based on a systern of values which var- possible, since even the rnost respectful al goods,. an attitude that is often exag- ies over the ages and which depends only restorations cause changes in the obiect gerated and sornetirnes owes more to the on the relations established between rnen being preserved. Frorn an extreme point age of the work than to its intrinsic qual- and their surroundings. Over the ages, of view, therefore, it would be legitirnate ity. this systern of values has swung between to defend the decay and ruin of a rnonu- O GERMAN PAVlLlON MIES VAN DER ROHE. REBUllT BY THE ARCHITECTS C. CIRICI. F. RAMOS AND I SOLA-MORALES (19841

ment as an added value to be preserved, formal approach and texture contrast cover the functionality of the Rornan the- part of its very meaning as a testimony of with those of the already existing con- atre by rebuilding the seating in the passage of time. structions without being an obstacle to white stone and, in a radically unortho- The repairs to the forrner monastery of their appreciation. The same tone can be dox move, building a new stage over the Sant Pere de Rodes, a foremost work of seen in these architects' work of consoli- remains of the Roman construction. The Catalan Romanesque art, provide a good dation and restoration on the castle of e.xisting architecture is here understood example of how an intervention of great Bellver in Palma de Mallorca. as historical material with which it is le- poetic content can be undertaken with the An illustration of the opposite tendency is gitimate to work from the present. right degree of radicalism and sensitivity the restoration of the Roman theatre in This approach raises another of the cen- to establish an honest and direct dialogue Sagunt, the work of the architects tral questions in the debate on interven- with the monument. After the Benedictine G.Grassi and M.Portacelli, which has giv- tion in architectural remains: historical community abandoned the monastery at en rise to one of the bitterest controver- material is seen as the context with which the beginning of the last century, the pro- sies of recent years as to the criteria on it is necessary to establish a conflictive gressive degradation of the buildings was which preservation of the heritage should dialogue, over and above rnimetic re- aggravated by the looting and destruction be based and the limits to which it should construction and stylistic exactness. The of its sculptural and docurnentary patri- be taken. Sagunt, close to the city of Va- historical obiect is valued as a tectonic mony. More than a building, Sant Pere lencia and probably an Iberian settle- reality in which the intervention supposes de Rodes is a magnificent ruin which the ment, was one of the rnost important cit- a further layer added.to the accumulation architects J.A.Martinez-Lapeña and E.To- ies on the Peninsula's Mediterranean of rnoments and the rernains deposited rres have set out to consolidate by ex- coast during the early days of the Roman over the course of time. The legitimacy ploiting its aesthetic charrn and estab- Empire, probably the third in size follow- and convenience of this sort of interven- lishing itineraries and basic services that ing Tarraco and Cartago Nova. Proof of tion depend on the subtlety of the rela- help visitors to understand the extent of its magnificence is that, like Tarraco, it tionship between new and old. In projects the construction. The new building work had iwo buildings for large-scale enter- to enlarge historic buildings the type of takes the form of a series of specific in- tainment: a circus and a theatre. The ba- dialogue the new architecture establishes terventions of a minimalist nature, whose sic criterion for the restoration was to re- with the old becomes more evident. If his- torical architecture provides the frame for The sum of operations for the conversion QIIconservation work, this condition be- of the Casa de la Caritat, part of the plan comes especially important when it comes to clean up and restore Barcelona's Raval to extending a building. The existing district, has turned the cluster of buildings construction has to be seen as a devel- built up during the eighteenth and nine- oping organism. Its interna1 logic is pro- teenth centuries around the former Carthu- jected beyond the original limits to con- sian monastery into a new cultural and ar- dition and bring to life the new- tistic centre. he demolition of part of the drchitecture. historic complex of buildings freed the site The enlargement, conversion and resto- on which Barcelona's new Museum of ration of the Palau.de la Múslca,Catala-. Contemporary Art has been built, the na, one of the most interesting exam~les work of the American architect R,Meier. of Catallan Modernist architecture and the The radical nature of the intervention in work of LI.Dom&nech ii Muntaner, was this sector is argued for by the wish to planned fnom the viewpoint of the neces- CASTELLDE BELLVER. PALMA DE MALLORCA.REBUILT BY create an important centre of activities ca- sary modernization and reconditioning of THE ARCHITECTS J.A. MART~NEZLAPENA AND E. TORRES pable of bringing new [¡fe to a severely a concert 'hall. However, the work goes run-down area of the city centre. Opera- beyond these considerations and centres tions affecting the heritage often form part on recovering the building's spatial struc- of strategies responding to interests that ture and correcting the confiticts with its have nothing to do with the actual valua- im,mediate surround~in~s.~educiqg, the tion and preservation of the works. This in length of the u;nfinish,ed neighbouring itself is recognition of the importante that churcb incide itpdssib¡e to recover-one of reconditioning monuments can have in the the chief features of this concert hall, development of public proiects. The pre- . ~hichis aftached to other constructions cise reconstruction of historical bu.ildings bu' was pla,nned as a free-standing pub- is the paradigm of this sort of situation, lic)bui/ding. The conversion by the archi- since here one sees most clearly the ca- tects 0.Tusquets and C.Diaz has turned pacity of the present for rebuilding the the glass wall planned by Domenech as a past and appropriating it as a secure false interior facade into a true fasade . value outside the market. One of the most which harmonizes with the new service emblematic moves in Barcelona's candi- building and its elegantly contextualist ar- dacy for the 1992 Olympic Games was chitecture. the decision to recondition, in spite of its The work by the architects H.Piñon and functional inadequacy and its poor state A.Viaplana on the building known as the of repair, the old Montiuic Stadium built Pati de les Dones in the old Charity in 1929 on occasion of the Universal Ex- House in Barcelona shows an approach hibition and a symbol of the city's Olyrn- aimed at avoiding confrontation with the pic aspirations frustrated by the Spanish dlready existing building, thereby cir- civil war. The consensus between the dif- cumventing problems in compositional re- ferent public administrations and influen- lations. The resolution df the large subter- tial sectors of Catalan society to rebuild mnean vestibule, the volurne+ric clarity of the main hall of the Gran Teatre del Liceu fhe ,new building forrning the norfh wi'ng -a symbol of the city's cultural life, burnt . o€the courtyard, ~uxta~osedwith1,the orig- down in 1994- exactly as it was can also inal building without interfering with ít, be seen in this light. . and tihe immateriality of the new glass CASTELLDE BELLVER. PAW DE MALLORCA.REBUILT BY This sort of reconstruction leads us to the facade overlooking the courtyard, with an THE ARCHITECTSJ.A. MART~NEZLAPENA AND E. TORRES debate on the authenticity and originality inflection in the form of a cornice, are as- of historic buildings. In the same way that pects characterizing the strategy of this culture can reinvent traditions and even project. history itself, it can also reinvent monu- SANT PERE DE RODES. REBUILT BY J.A. MART~NEZLAPEQA AND E. TORRES SANT PERE DE RODES. SERVICES. REBUllT BY J.A. MART~NEZ LAPENA AND E. TORRES

ments. We could say that the ruins of a mental landmarks of modern architecture, were built or painted specially for the oc- building, which are no more than a ves- represents the culmination of a long pro- casion and today are considered of tige of the original building, can come to cess begun in Barcelona in 1954 which great significance in the history of mod- acquire a meaning of their own as a ruin received the support of the architect him- ern art, such as Calder's Mercury Foun- and, therefore, a new authenticity. How- self. Rebuilt by the architects C.Cirici, tain, Miró's Catalan Peasant and Revolu- ever, the reconstruction ex novo of a F.Ramos and I.Sold-Morales, it was inau- tion and Picasso's Guernica. The pav- historical building can acquire the value gurated in 1984 on its original site in the ilion, originally built in the gardens of the of authenticity as a way of reappropriat- Park of Montiu9icin Barcelona. Its recov- Trocadero in Paris, was reconstructed by ing a referent from the past endowed with ery materializes Catalan culture's un- the architects M.Espinet, A.Ubach and a new collective significance. broken link with the European avant- J.M.Hernández in the new Vall dfHebron The reconstruction of the German pavilion gardes. Known al1 over the world as the park in Barcelona on the occasion of the from the 1929 Universal Exhibition in Barcelona Pavilion, it has become a sym- 1992 Olympic Games. Barcelona and the Spanish pavilion from bol of the cityfs international proiection My aim here is not to judge results, so the lnternational Exhibition in Paris in and of the recovery of its commercial and much as to comment on approaches, ap- 1937 are examples of the documentary cultural openness to the world. The re- proaches that start with the doubt that and political value attached to "newly construction of the Spanish Republicls pa- arises when tackling an old topic from a authentic" monuments. In both cases the vilion, the work of the architects J.LI.Sert new perspective, with a new feeling for reconstructors have had to fight to obtain and L.Lacas, represents not only the re- the past. The debate, which is still going durable buildings -an essential category covery of one of the most significant on al1 over the world, has not taken in any monument- while at the same time works of Catalan rationalism, but also of place in our country on paper or in con- preserving their character as ephemeral one of the most powerful cries for help ference halls, but on the drawing table exhibition constructions. made to attract the attention of the world and in the works themselves. And its re- The reconstruction of the German pavil- to the tragedy of the Spanish civil war. sults, abundant, varied and of differing ion, an emblematic work by Mies van der Amongst many other works of art, the quality, are today an important part of Rohe recognized as one of the funda- original pavilion exhibited pieces which our historic architecture. U