The tendencies of character monumental intervention: Brazilian experience (1980-2010)

Abstract

The article “The tendencies of character monumental intervention: Brazilian experience (1980-2010)”, is based on the reflection about the current dialogues between the old and the new, permanence and innovation, which are part of the scene of contemporary architectural production where it has been observed, more and more, that old buildings are becoming part of a new history of the city. In order to discuss that phenomenon in Brazil, the study has defined as geographical and temporal bias the Brazilian architectural production in monumental intervention programs in the period between the 1980’s and 2000’s, based on the conclusion that most of such production does not comply with the criteria established by the disciplinary field of restoration, where practice is replaced by discretion and experimentation without so much severity and critical judgment based on the meaning of the preexisting work. Aiming to understand Brazilian scene as for valuing its heritage and materialization of which values, which criteria and how intervention and preservation of monuments are carried out in practice, from significant examples, we identify eight representative intervention tendencies: Autonomy, Differentiation, Reinterpretation, Ripristino, Appropriation, Completion, Preservation and Reintegration, thus originating groups with similar features, not totally severe and closed, but which, somehow, could make reading works easier and characterize the interventions overview in national scene concerning restoration disciplinary field.