“Contemporary Architectural Problematics - Preservation” Arredamento Article

Along with modernity, Preservation has become a major problematic in the urban and architectural millieux. Architecture discipline seems perplexed when confronted with the challenges of the historical built environment, and chooses to either annihilate or sublimate its counterparts, which in the end, only augments the deadlocks as the different sides of the same coin. Preservation has become a battleground between the preservation and intervention of the cultural environment, which is predominantly dealt with inventing a harmonious, holistic and historical spatial "Aura" that yearns for an imaginary transcendental nostalgia on the one hand (Nostalgic Preservation), and exploited by the cosmetic marketing strategies and elitist exploitation of urban gentrification and renovation apparatuses on the other (Cosmetic Preservation). This article will ask how to deal with Preservation within analytical frameworks (Realistic Preservation) and whether it is possible to construct Preservation not solely as a catatonic and marketable mechanism, but rather as a flexible and vital formation in constant interaction with the urban environment through a horizontal social network (Aufgehoben Preservation).

Date: January 2013
Type: Theoretical article
Program: Publication, Research
Client: Arredamento Mimarlık
Author: Gökhan Kodalak
Location: Turkey, Istanbul
Status: Published
Link: https://issuu.com/aboutblank-istanbul/docs/gk-koruma-arredamento-_2013_