from The Guardian
Preserving listed buildings - on computer
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If a building is seen as a bloated artefact, then perhaps a digitised image may sometimes suffice for structures with lesser significance. However, it must surely be understood that a building will not adequately exist outside of its immediate physical context in terms of context and the human scale.
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I think it depends on the purpose of architectural preservation. As a visual resource, digitalized images or house models may suffice but I agree with Lawrence and would even go one step further to say that a building cannot exist outside its physical context. Buildings are living spaces, built based on the human scale to facilitate experience of these created spaces. Similarly, its aesthetics cannot be separated from the human element. A person will never adequately experience an architecture in its digitalized form as compared to someone who goes through the building spaces physically. So, in pulling down the physical and replacing its existence with a top quality digitalized image, we still do lose part of the heritage in some way.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I also think there is a very real problem of space constraint to accommodate both the old and new, sooner or later. Sometimes, too much time and resources devoted to keep old architecture standing/ functioning do hinder resources being channeled towards facilitating the creation of architecture that fits the needs and lifestyle of the present times. Is shaping the future more important than preserving the past? Not that I'm suggesting both is mutually exclusive but sometimes we do make choices that has opportunity costs for the other. A balance has to be struck somehow…
For me, the issue is not so much the trade-off that is sometimes needed (and recognised as necessary) between development and preservation. The issue is that merely having a digital record and calling it preservation would invite a kind of avoidance (or self-deception, even) in taking on the difficult task of discussing the importance and relevance of keeping (or not keeping) an architectural sturcture. Destruction, however necessary, must be recognised as such, no matter how diffcult the decision might have been.
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