NonA Weekly: AFTER DESTRUCTION
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Dear readers and friends,
Today’s cities have been substantially reshaped during the post-war period, and even those not bombed jumped on the replanning bandwagon. New infrastructure such as ring roads, new architectural forms and materials, and new land uses such as shopping centres all emerged from this short period. 70 years later we are also beginning to assess whether any of these merit retention and conservation and recently the research has been questioning how such decisions are made.
1. REBUILDING CITIES AFTER THE CATASTROPHE OF WAR AND DESTRUCTION
How does conservation factor into rebuilding and repairing after war and conflict? Researchers at BCU analyse “reconstruction era” CITIES and how those decisions shape cities 70 years later.
2. REBUILDING CITIES AFTER WAR
What does it mean to kill a city? And can it come back to life? These are QUESTIONS that are becoming increasingly important. But what history has shown is that cities can, in fact, come back to life after wartime destruction.
3. DESTRUCTIVISM: HOW DOES WAR AFFECT ARCHITECTURE?
The very beginning of ARCHITECTURE, construction, and civilizations was born from the need to be protected – from the weather, from animals, or from enemies. Towers, forts, ditches, parapets, and revetments were all made to anticipate and protect. After that, came industry, technology, war machines, bombs, and satellites; fortification and towering only made it easier to be found and attacked, and cities were destroyed to the bone. Architecture became more of a tool to survive and pay homage: shelters, soldiers’ housing, and memorials.
4. THE DESTRUCTION OF MEMORY: ARCHITECTURE AT WAR
This BOOK presents a brilliant summation of how nations are destroyed methodically by destroying their culture and re-inventing history. It refers that architecture is not merely the product of identity, nor even the symbolic representation of identity, but has become the physical embodiment of that identity – flesh made stone.
Stay creative and see you all next week!
Daniela
