Theories and Histories of Architectural Preservation
Department of Architecture
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Professor Heghnar Watenpaugh
E-mail: heghnar@mit.edu

Course Description:
This graduate seminar addresses the critical issues involved in the practice of preserving architectural forms from the past. Concepts such as "Tradition," "Heritage," "Patrimony" and "Monument" are examined in the context of debates on memory, the historical imagination, the variable meaning of the visible past, imperial and national identities. Major theoretical interventions by Riegl, Ruskin, Viollet-Le-Duc and others, and their legacy are studied. We will also consider the institutions and professionalization of the practice of preservation. Case studies from the West as well as the non-West range from interventions into urban areas, to abandoned settlements, to archeaological sites, to museological and exhibitionary spaces. These issues are considered in the pre-modern and modern periods, as well as in relation to the contemporary global tourist industry and its implications for the conceptualization and the commodification of “traditional” environments and architectural “masterpieces”.

Evaluation:
Class Participation (20%): You are expected to attend all class meetings and to critically engage the readings. Class participation includes the oral presentation of the Case Study.
Written Assignments:
Critical analysis (20%): You will write a critical analysis of a key theoretical text which has implications for the practice of conservation, to be chosen in consultation with me. 4-5 pages, doublespaced. Due September 23, 2002.
A Preserved Environment (20%): In the course of the semester, you will visit a site in the Boston area that has been the subject of a deliberate conservation effort (you can chose a historic monument, neighborhood, residential or commercial building, bridge, nature park…). Your paper will describe your experience as a user of this site, will analyze it critically and will link it to the debates in the field. A diagram of the space and any other visually relevant information should be included. 4-5 pages, doublespaced. Due October 28, 2002.
Case Study Paper (40%): a critical presentation and analysis of a case study in preservation, which could range from a restored site, a plan for such a site, key happenings, reinscriptions or meaningful eradications. Your analysis will explicitly address a theoretical debate covered in class as it relates to your topic. Due in class at the latest on December 13, 2002. 8-10 pages, doublespaced, exclusive of endnotes, bibliography, and illustrations.

Texts:
All articles read in class have been placed on reserve at Rotch library. In addition, the following books are available at the MIT Bookstore:

Jukka Jokilehto, A History of Architectural Conservation (Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999)
Nicholas Stanley Price et al, eds. Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 1996)

Michael Herzfeld, A Place in History: Social and Monumental Time in a Cretan Town (Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1991).

Class Schedule:

Week 1. September 4
Introduction

Week 2. September 11
The drive to preserve/to destroy. The Professionalization of Preservation

Week 3. September 18
“Tradition”

Week 4. September 25
“Patrimony” 1: Nation and History

Week 5. October 2
“Patrimony” 2: Bureaucratic modernity

Week 6. October 9
Ruskin, Viollet-Le-Duc et al : Close Readings

Week 7. October 16
“Monument” and Riegl

Week 8 October 23
Colonialism and the Preservation of Urban Heritage

Week 9 October 30
Local Debates, Global Debates. Preservation and Social Time

Week 10 November 6
Gentification

Week 11 November 13
Representations and Commodifications of “Preserved” Forms

Week 12 November 20
The Tourism Industry. Local and Global Implications

Week 13 November 27
Student Presentations

Week 14 December 4
Student Presentations

Week 15 December 11
Student Presentations