CFP: Beyond Restoration: Architectural Revival, Survival, and Memory (Edinburgh, 7 – 9 April 2016)

Beyond Restoration: Architectural Revival, Survival, and Memory
Association of Art Historians (AAH) 2016 Annual Conference and Book Fair
University of Edinburgh, April 7 – 9, 2016
Deadline: November 9, 2015
AAH Session Convenors:
Robyne Calvert, Glasgow School of Art, r.calvert@gsa.ac.uk
Ayla Lepine, University of Essex, ayla.lepine@gmail.com
On 23 May 2014, a fire ravaged the historic Glasgow School of Art building, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh c.1897–1909. Although the majority of the building was saved, a small but significant portion of the interior and collection was destroyed, including its renowned library. The immediate reaction of many stakeholders was that restoration should be approached as a ‘faithful’ recreation of the original. However, some suggest that this strategy would be a mistake, and that what was lost could never be recovered without it being a dissatisfying pastiche. Some even claim to know the mind of the architect, declaring that Mackintosh would never have rebuilt the space in the same way, so why should his design be reconstructed in the 21st century?
Taking this crucial and controversial event as a springboard for wider dialogue, this panel seeks to investigate architectural heritage within the frameworks of destruction, restoration, reconstruction, revival, and survival. Is it responsible or even possible to craft ‘faithful’ reconstructions? How do revivals and reconstructions contribute to cultural history as moments of innovation as well as tradition or continuity? What impulses motivate a desire to reinvent the past, if we accept that it can never be replicated or recovered? To what extent do debates regarding style, regionalism, globalisation and collaboration impact upon restoring the built environment?
Papers are invited from the widest possible range of approaches and international perspectives across periods and geographies, with particular interest in topics that focus on revivalism, memory and reconstruction in architectural practices and theories of conservation.
Email 250-word paper proposals to the session convenor(s) by 9 November 2015. Full proposal guidelines here:
http://www.aah.org.uk/annual-conference/sessions2016/session9

Share this post

News from the field

ARQ 121: Utopian América

Coined by Thomas More in 1516, utopia holds a telling ambiguity: it means “no place” (ou-topos) but is sufficiently close to “good place” (eu-topos). Since then, the concept has oscillated between aspiration and critique—between imagining radical alternatives and...

Materialities of Empire

Organizers: Irene Cheng, James Graham, Andrew Herscher, Diana Martinez Attention to material has become almost ubiquitous in recent architectural history, both extending and revising a modernist tradition of interest in material innovation and expression. Whether...

Materia Arquitectura 29: CIVICNESS

CIVICNESS: ARCHITECTURE AND THE POLITICS OF THE PUBLIC REALM Guest editors: Anna Livia Friel & Agustina Labarca Gatica The term character in architecture has long been contested. During the 17th century, it was defined as rational manifestation of a building’s...

Plant Histories, Plantation Architectures

Palm leaves loosely thatched create a bushy screen wall. The screen is part of a large building designed to shelter the pieces of other plants and make them dry out quickly. They are tobacco leaves, hanging from the rafters in neat rows swaying in the breeze. Nearby,...