Dialética intempestiva: dimensões pós-históricas do patrimônio

Abstract

This thesis aims to scrutinise the projectual, aesthetic and discursive foundations that insert contemporary architectural creation into contexts conceptualised as historical, as well as their differential processes that flow from space-time. This process concerns grasping the genealogy and the state of the art concerning the modes of action, the legitimacy and the operating limits involved in creating new architectures within a certain historical and symbolic locus. This research, in its completed form, is structured around three core axes. The first axis tackles the historical genealogy revolving around what is deemed heritage culture and the issue of architectural co-presences. A long temporal arc is defined, with the architectural appropriations starting at the Renaissance as its starting point, encompassing the quarrel between ancient and modern, the classical controversies between Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and John Ruskin. It also outlines the subversion of the horizon of expectations by the first displays of orthodox modernism and the contrast between post-war contextualism advocates. The second part presents an exposition of the range of architectural works and theories established within the second half of the 20th century that elucidate the maturing of this debate and the multiplicity of ways in which the controversy can be tackled. In this section, further attention is given to the reflections of three prominent critics and scholars of the fields of architecture and restoration: Cesare Brandi, Aldo Rossi and Ignasio de Solà-Morales. Furthermore, an expressive selection of works is introduced: works which are classified according to their projectual and tropical strategies, inspired by the analytics proposed by Hayden White. The third part aims to expose the difficulty (or even the impossibility) of establishing unequivocal valuing and projectual criteria concerning the intersection between architecture and heritage, due to the epistemological disjunction of strict normative systems, the ascension of axiological relativism and the dissolution of the sense within modern tradition. In order to problematize these issues, it is necessary to return to the 19th century and contemplate works of criticism enunciated by relevant authors of the time, most notably Alois Riegl, Wilhelm Dilthey and Friedrich Nietzsche. These convergences lead to the creation of the concept of post-history; the lead especially to the critical elaborations made by the art critic Arthur Danto and philosopher Gianni Vattimo, both directly influenced by philosophies of temporality and difference. The dissolution of a sense of history as a unitary and teleological process can be thus construed, as the categories of overcoming, of new and of time as progress are modulated under the scrutiny of the notions of zeitgeist and genius loci, with the contrast between Christian Norberg-Schulz and Michel Foucault. To summarize, this investigation probes the depths of the tension imposed by difference, be it as a result of historical-temporal dispersion, be it by spatial-cultural dispersion, and accomplished in the celebration of dissension and plurality, not only as an ethical-aesthetical-political foundation, but epistemologically as a non-metaphysical direction for the handling of heritage-related issues.