DETRY & LEVY ARCHITECTURE > ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE
The Restoration of the architectural and urban heritage
The city is the common place of all forms of architecture. The architectural shape always makes reference to a history, to a custom, to a typology, it is never a pure invention. The architect has to operate in places already formally defined. How to work on the "pre-existent", whether they are heritage holdings, classified or registered as Historical Monuments , Cheap Houses ( HBM) of the 1920’s or COUNCIL HOUSES of the "Glorious Thirties" (1950 / 1970)?
It is probably at the same time a question of method (scientific rigor, diagnosis of the "architect as a doctor, energy specialist, builder”) and of visual thinking (aesthetic and critical approach of "the architect artist").
Our agency is completely involved in this work on the architectural heritage, not only through projects, but also through teaching, research and publications. For us one of the best approaches of the discipline is the Italian School of "restauro critico" ( critical restoration). We have been developing the theoretical and operational principles in several buildings which were restored or are in course of restoration.
According to Cesare BRANDI, restoration "constitutes the methodological moment of recognition of the work of art in both, its aesthetic and historic polarity, with the aim of its transmission to the future generations" (Teoria del restauro, Roma, on 1963).
The restoration of architectural heritage is an internal discipline to architecture, but which requires a specific methodological approach benefiting from contributions of other disciplines. At the international level, it is allowed to precede the works by a "preliminary study" (preliminary study in English, studio preliminare in Italian, estudios previos in Spanish, Bauforschung in German).
This preliminary study allows to get to know a former building (or an ancient town planning) according to further points of view: historic / architectural / aesthetic / sociological / technical / constructive / energy, etc.
We are in favour of a simple, understandable architecture for all, almost familiar, but which may be complex.
The complexity is not always situated in the shape, but rather in the work of conception. We privilege the sustainable, "timeless" materials, the natural materials, having limited grey energy or being recyclable.
The heritage joins naturally an ecological approach (monuments exist for centuries and testify sustainability).
The possibility of preserving and of passing on in future the physical tracks of the monumental heritage is a source of great pleasure and pride to us. It is also a vector of the development of peace and the dialogue between people.