In Depth: Challenges in conserving the recent past
Louise Honman attended the (Un)loved Modern ICOMOS Conference, Sydney, July 2009. Here are some of her conference highlights.
Re-engaging with the original designer
The recent ICOMOS conference in Sydney explored ways in which it is possible to make connections between the places and people of the recent past. One case study for this was the way in which Jorn Utzon’s son Jan has been engaged to “continue the composition” of the world heritage listed Sydney Opera House some thirty years after his father’s dismissal from the project. The first step involved Jorn in a series of conversations about the building to develop a conservation management plan with design principles to show, in Jan Utzon’s words, “how we behave this building”. Through re-engagement with the creative vision of Utzon , the humanity of the design has been re-focussed, and in the words of Jan again “we enter like actors, play our part and the play goes on”.
Contemporary archaeology
Coining the wonderful word “brimbling” to describe walking or wandering with an informant, as a technique in understanding place, archaeologist John Schofield explained his philosophy of understanding the cultural landscape through the experience of others. Archaeology becomes an inclusive discipline with an emphasis on the everyday as opposed to the special. The idea is that “places are always becoming” and there is a democratic and common heritage represented in the space, change and material culture of place. Schofield often works with artists to represent places in imaginative ways and to create works of art as a means of recording places. Traditional means of conserving the recent past can include creative interpretations and by this means our common heritage may be “written” by each generation in their own way.
Value-free assessment
In Stockholm there are many small green spaces and “as long as there is a name for it, we count it” said Per Olgarsson from Stockholm’s City Museum. Mapping the characteristics of the “Normmalm” (the new city), as opposed to the much-loved “Gamle By” (the old city) has highlighted a very different set of values not necessarily envisaged by the City of Stockholm. Faced with pressure for a massive re-development of the post war city centre in Stockholm, the response from the City Museum has been to understand what people appreciate about the modern city and to represent this in a visually engaging and graphic way. What might appear initially to be unlovely spaces or buildings, may have redeeming qualities that can adapt and be re-absorbed into the life of the city. Uncovering those qualities and interpreting them is a worthwhile exercise and may prevent yet another re-invention of the city merely because the old one has become unfashionable.
Collecting antiques
The skills of photographers and archivists in utilizing ways of digital recording are an asset in the conservation of places. Setting new standards for the identification, recording, studying, comparing and disseminating information is needed for the vast majority of places we may be unable to keep. The traditional approach to conservation is often a process of looking around for survivors and using planning tools to conserve them, much akin to “collecting antiques”. Architect George Wilkie and archivist Bob Broughton use a different perspective. Using a case study of an unusual modern house built in a gun emplacement by a post war emigre, they argued that there is no need to wait for an arbitrary 25 or 50 years before being able to identify what it is that we might want to keep. For many places it is the process of change that is of interest and adds an extra dimension to our understanding.