Time Matter(s)

This book fills in a blind spot in current architectural theory and practice, looking into a notion of conservation as a form of invention and imagination, offering the reader a counter-viewpoint to a predominant western understanding that preservation should be a 'still shot' from the past. Through a micro-historical study of a Renaissance concept of restoration, this book provides a theoretical framework to question the issue of conservation as a possible creative endeavour, when a mnemonic building is concerned, entailing conservation of memory within changes. It focuses on Tiberio Alfarano's 1571 ichnography of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, into which was woven a complex body of religious, political, architectural and cultural elements.

Dr Federica Goffi, Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism, Carleton University, Canada.

Contents: Preface; Prologue: notes on the ontology of remaking mnemic buildings; Introduction to a micro-historical study of the renovation of St Peter's basilica in the Vatican, (1506-1626); Architecture's twinned body: building and drawing; 'Hallowed configuration': the mediating role of architectural representation in built conservation; Stratigraphic drawings and the drawings of members: assembling the exquisite corpse; Restoring the corporate body: heteroglossia versus unity of style; Framing the icon. Skin-deep conservation versus the imagination of built conservation; Time matter(s). The sempiternal nature of built conservation; The role of ambiguity and the unfinished in defining built conservation; Bibliography; Index.