While the 1900s can be considered the short century of History, we can also define it as the “fragile century” of Architecture: in a short space of time, we saw the production, across the world, of an unparalleled quantity of constructions but with an undoubted decline in architectural quality. The construction techniques of this historical period are now at the centre of the debate on the future of late Twentieth-Century heritage. It is a tricky issue, precisely because the materials and technologies with which this heritage was built have now revealed a series of problems of degradation and physical decay, not only due to exogenous factors. The “short century” is also “fragile” for historiography and critics, still vitiated by many prejudices and lack of objectiveness. However, there is another issue of “fragility” that, until now, has not been properly considered: this relates to copyrights. At first glance, it may seem to have nothing to do with construction quality; however, it hits the mark as, if a building needs “care”, this should be implemented in respect of and in safeguarding the authorship of the work. This, however, often does not happen. It is an issue that relates to the “Culture of the City”: we must first get to know the Heritage that we have before us and learn how to interpret, analyse and assess it critically, to propose its regeneration in an informed manner.

The Twentieth-Century: a fragile century, to be safeguarded and consciously nurtured / Mellano, P.. - STAMPA. - XVII:(2019), pp. 829-836. (Intervento presentato al convegno XVII INTERNATIONAL FORUM "LE VIE DEI MERCANTI" tenutosi a NAPOLI - CAPRI nel 6-7-8 giugno 2019).

The Twentieth-Century: a fragile century, to be safeguarded and consciously nurtured

MELLANO, P.
2019

Abstract

While the 1900s can be considered the short century of History, we can also define it as the “fragile century” of Architecture: in a short space of time, we saw the production, across the world, of an unparalleled quantity of constructions but with an undoubted decline in architectural quality. The construction techniques of this historical period are now at the centre of the debate on the future of late Twentieth-Century heritage. It is a tricky issue, precisely because the materials and technologies with which this heritage was built have now revealed a series of problems of degradation and physical decay, not only due to exogenous factors. The “short century” is also “fragile” for historiography and critics, still vitiated by many prejudices and lack of objectiveness. However, there is another issue of “fragility” that, until now, has not been properly considered: this relates to copyrights. At first glance, it may seem to have nothing to do with construction quality; however, it hits the mark as, if a building needs “care”, this should be implemented in respect of and in safeguarding the authorship of the work. This, however, often does not happen. It is an issue that relates to the “Culture of the City”: we must first get to know the Heritage that we have before us and learn how to interpret, analyse and assess it critically, to propose its regeneration in an informed manner.
2019
9788849237528
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2769669
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo