Intervene on the Ancient World: Lectures, Theories and Cases

Abstract

Understood as what has preceded us, come to us through his physical and historical traces, the ancient and in particular "the ancient world" — that for us Europeans, and mostly for the Italians, coincides with the end of the Roman Empire — has always been, in every historical period, a reference to the culture, art, architecture. A required reference, either when it has been configured as a constant evolution and as when it is a critical restitution, a nostalgic revival or it has been cancelled, due to ideology or simply for ignorance and vulgarity.

From the Renaissance and at least till the Modern Movement, the relationship with the antique is an alternation of continuity and discontinuity, of memory and forgetfulness, of consolidated presence and sudden discovery, of coexistence and conflict. Even today, in spite of laws and regulations that establish the limits, the complexity of this relationship gives rise to theoretical and operational positions articulated if not conflicting. And of course, this relationship also changes depending on the prevalent archaeological culture and attitude of architects over time.

Beyond the specifics of the issues related to the peculiarities of the archaeological heritage, the theme refers to the complex relationship between modern architectural culture and history, understood as identitary memory, but also as presence of the antique in the heart of a city and its territory. Understanding modernity is not a matter of time, not as "new" because it has no past, nor to designate in some way the contemporaries, even if bringing ruptures and innovations, but rather as a way of being compared to the past. The contribution of the author aims to retrace the events and the various theories that have shaped the history of this relationship. Each one is a lesson. It then follows the tentative outline of the complexity of the relations between architecture, archaeology and landscape, through the critical examination of cases realized in Europe and in Italy.

Keywords

Ancient World / Archaeological Heritage / Architecture / Modernity / Relationship

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2014 Higher Education Press