Architecture Commons^™

Constructing The Absent — Preservation And Restoration Of Architecture, Remei Capdevila-Werning

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Architectural conservation aims to preserve, restore, and reconstruct damaged, decayed, and no longer extant buildings. This purpose entails that architectural conservation is constantly facing absence: a physical absence, when material parts are missing from a building, and an intangible one, when the physical absence stands for a missing people or culture. The role of preservationist interventions is to make all these absences present. This paper deals with the relationship of absence and presence in preservation practices. By examining several preservation processes, it aims to show the implicit and explicit ways in which absences are made present and also how the …