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Abstract
This paper outlines a theoretical approach to the rationale for conservation of built environment that suggests that psychological factors may be as important as political or aesthetic issues. Within the context of conservation of historic buildings and townscapes, it examines the notion of ontological security and the importance of the physical world in its construction and takes case studies from post‐war Europe and contemporary South Korea to illustrate its propositions.
Acknowledgements
This paper originated as a lecture at the Summer School of the Institute of Historic Buildings Conservation (IHBC) in Plymouth in June 2006, where it received lively criticism. I am grateful to those IHBC members whose response was energetic enough to make me feel that the idea was worth pursuing. I am also grateful to my anonymous IJHS reviewers, whose comments have helped me to sharpen aspects of the argument.
Notes
[1] Delafons, Politics and Preservation, 105.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Atkinson, ‘Kitsch Geographies’.
[4] For example, Howard, Heritage, 5–6, and addressed throughout Graham et al., Geography of Heritage; and Tunbridge and Ashworth, Dissonant Heritage.
[5] Giddens, Modernity and Self‐identity, chap. 2, passim.
[6] Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, 72–95.
[7] Giddens, Consequences of Modernity, 92.
[8] Erikson, Childhood and Society; Winnicott, The Maturational Processes; idem, Playing and Reality.
[9] Giddens, Modernity and Self‐identity, 40–41. Emphasis in original.
[10] For critiques see Clark et al., Anthony Giddens, 1990; Held and Thompson, Social Theory of Modern Societies, 1989; Craib, Anthony Giddens, 1992.
[11] Atkinson, ‘Kitsch Geographies’.
[12] Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 66.
[13] Broad discussions of the social construction of space perhaps begin with Henri Lefebvre, Production of Space, and Pierre Bourdieu, The Berber House. Ideas about the meanings of buildings have been thoroughly explored by architectural theorists and given practical expression in the work of the Space Syntax team at the Bartlett School of Architecture (Hillier and Hanson, Social Logic of Space; Hanson, Decoding Houses; and latterly the work of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London [accessed 8 August 2007], available from http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/). Thomas Markus, Buildings and Power, is of particular interest to those interested in historical applications of such thinking, while an anthropological perspective is provided by Amos Rapoport, Meaning of the Built Environment.
[14] Harkrader, Board Schools of York.
[15] Giddens, Modernity and Self‐identity, 41.
[16] Fergusson and Mowl, Sack of Bath, 7.
[17] Diefendorf, Rebuilding Europe’s Bombed Cities, 5.
[18] For a detailed consideration of the German situation, which I have been unable to include for reasons of space, see Diefendorf, In the Wake of War.
[19] Matless, Ages of English Design and Landscapes of Englishness.
[20] Stansfield, Thomas Sharp; Dix, Patrick Abercrombie.
[21] Sharp, Town Planning, 33.
[22] Ibid., 133.
[23] Larkham, ‘The Place of Urban Conservation in UK Reconstruction Plans’, 303–4; Larkham and Lilley, ‘Plans, Planners and City Images’, 196; Pendlebury, ‘The Modern Historic City’, 379–85.
[24] Sharp, Town Planning, 142.
[25] Hasegawa, ‘Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction’, esp. 141–42.
[26] Dixon, On the Psychology of Military Incompetence.
[27] Stansfield, Thomas Sharp, 154.
[28] Mason and Tiratsoo, ‘People, Politics and Planning’, passim.
[29] Hasegawa, ‘Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction’, 140.
[30] Mason and Tiratsoo, ‘People, Politics and Planning’, 95.
[31] Ibid., 99.
[32] Hubbard et al., ‘Contesting the Modern City’, passim.
[33] Hasegawa, ‘Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction’, 159.
[34] See Larkham, ‘The Place of Urban Conservation in UK Reconstruction Plans’; Larkham and Lilley, ‘Plans, Planners and City Images’; and Pendlebury, ‘The Modern Historic City’, for detailed treatments of this fascinating subject.
[35] Adshead et al., York: A Plan for Progress and Preservation.
[36] Larkham and Lilley, ‘Plans, Planners and City Images’, 202.
[37] Diefendorf, In the Wake of War, passim.
[38] Jankowski, ‘Warsaw’.
[39] Seoul Metropolitan Government [accessed 8 August 2007], available from http://english.seoul.go.kr/cheonggye/; Seoul Metropolitan Government, ‘Cheong Gye Cheon, Urban Revitalization and Future Vision’ [accessed 8 August 2007].
[40] Hong and Song, ‘Traditional Principles of Land Use’.
[41] Ibid.
[42] Matless, ‘Appropriate Geography’, 167–68.