HAA 1923 Global Preservation

The late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century debates regarding the role of the architectural monument as a signifier of the past, as a container of memory and more importantly authenticity, were the definitive moment in the institutionalization and professionalization of architectural preservation around the world. In a 1903 essay titled “The Modern Cult of Monuments,” art
historian Alois Reigl claimed that while the creation of monuments (i.e. structures built to memorialize certain events or persons) had a long history that predates modernity, the “cult of the monument” (i.e. the allocation of the monument as a unique and original object in a pre-ordained historical narrative of social and cultural evolution) came about as recently as the nineteenth-century. It is this coupling of the advent as well as the progress of modernity along with the formalization of systems of historic preservation that this course seeks to explore.

Rather than providing a linear and exhaustive history of preservation this course will interrogate the theories as well as the policies of preservation in different contexts as social and cultural histories. The course will be divided into five modules that are arranged thematically rather than chronologically. In the first module: “The Modern Origins of Historic Preservation,” we will investigate the historical origins of preservation in Britain, France and the United States and compare it to the more universal definition of heritage as advanced by the Venice Charter of UNESCO in 1964. Module two of the course focuses on the origins of architectural preservation in colonial contexts. The appropriation and representation of indigenous histories by colonial powers have been theorized variously as an attempt to dominate via cultural hegemony and in the management of cultural difference in the colonies. This section includes case studies from diverse contexts such as imperial France, colonial Africa, and India as well as Fascist Italy. The third module of the course is dedicated to preservation and the urban history of Pittsburgh. This section will allow students to explore the urban landscape of their city and choose a site of analysis for their final paper. The fourth module focuses on the intersections between national histories, urban histories, and preservation policies. Preservation has constructed and maintained narratives of national identity—representations that are replete with the mythologies of nationhood—and is a primary organ in the selective display of very particular histories and pasts of the modern nation-state. The fifth and final module of the course will expose students to the emergence of heritage as a commodity in the cycles of global capitalism. Although the commodification of heritage is not simply a phenomenon of globalization, preservation has increasingly become a key element in the renewal of urban landscapes around the world. The aggressive development of tourism in the post war world has resulted not just in the physical manipulation of the urban fabric, but also in the social and cultural manipulations of the perceptions of history of place. This section will thus return to the question of authenticity, with which we began the course, as a means to re-evaluate the contemporary nature of preservation projects in various parts of the world.