Reconstruction (architecture)

More narrowly, such as under the Secretary of Interior's Standards in the United States, "reconstruction" is "the act or process of depicting, using new construction, the form, features, and detailing of a non-surviving site, landscape, building, structure, or object to replicate its appearance at a specific time and in its historic location".

Examples include Yongdingmen (former Peking city gate temporarily sacrificed to traffic considerations), St Mark's Campanile in Venice (collapsed in 1902), House of the Blackheads (Riga), Iberian Gate and Chapel and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow (destroyed by order of Joseph Stalin), Dresden Frauenkirche and Semperoper in Dresden (bombed at the end of World War II).

The reconstruction of Warsaw's historic center (e.g., St. John's Cathedral, St. Kazimierz Church, Ujazdów Castle) and, e.g., the replica of the Stari Most built in Mostar (Bosnia Herzegovina) have met with official approval by UNESCO.

Other times, reconstructions are made in the case of sites where the historic and cultural significance was not recognized until long after their destruction, which is common in North America, especially with respect to its early history.

In architecture, Georg Mörsch describes reconstruction as a "scientific method of extracting sources to rebuild things that have gone under, regardless of the time that has passed since then".

The loss of the "beautiful old" is seen as an aesthetic diminution, and historically created and poorly closed building gaps are experienced as a permanent "flaw in the cityscape".

The original building fabric is often hardly preserved and architects in particular argue against this approach, saying that it merely creates a historical impression to appeal to a certain group of buyers.

The desire for the original substance, which is usually put forward by monument conservationists, cannot be met in many old buildings either; one speaks of the Theseus paradox.

Proponents of the reconstruction, on the other hand, have little fear of contact with the harmonistic architectural conceptions of the 19th century and also point to the lasting popularity of the domes that were "then completed" according to the principles that are not permitted today.

However, it is precisely the free access to the formal language of all earlier epochs that is considered one of the essential features of historicism as seen in postmodernism.

From a global perspective, the entire discussion about the pros and cons of reconstruction is a problem rooted in Eurocentric sensitivities.

Other cultures, both the Anglo-American region and Asia, deal with the topic differently: The regular, complete rebuilding of a Buddhist temple is part of the centuries-old tradition in Asian architecture, and the European concept of "true to the original" plays in this culture, which has everything in the philosophical core Material regarded as worthless shell, until today a subordinate role.

Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady, opened in 2005) in Dresden , Germany , reconstructed after its destruction during World War II
Robert Venturi 's "ghost structure" reconstruction at Franklin Court of Benjamin Franklin's house, as part of Independence National Historical Park , in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The design concept, since used at other sites, resulted from insufficient information to accurately reconstruct the house, and it was decided merely to suggest it. [ 3 ]
The New Frankfurt Old Town (Dom-Römer Quarter) in Frankfurt am Main . An example of "mixed" reconstruction.
Eilean Donan Castle , Scotland, an example of a "modelled" reconstruction.
The rebuilt Rovaniemi Church (completed in 1950) replaced the older 19th-century church destroyed by the Nazis during World War II . [ 5 ]
Ypres Cloth Hall – destroyed in World War I , reconstructed by 1967, UNESCO World Heritage since 1999
Stari Most in Mostar – destroyed during the Croat–Bosniak War in 1993, reconstructed by 2004, UNESCO World Heritage since 2005
Montreal Biosphère – burned in 1976, reconstructed by 1995
Vendôme Column in Paris – dismantled during the Paris Commune in 1871, reconstructed in 1874
Berlin Palace – demolished by the East German authorities in 1950, reconstructed by 2020
Stoa of Attalos in Athens – burned in 267 AD, reconstructed by 1956
Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome – burned in 1823, reconstructed by 1840
St Mark's Campanile in Venice – collapsed in 1902, reconstructed by 1912, UNESCO World Heritage since 1987
Heijō Palace in Heijō-kyō – abandoned in the 8th century, UNESCO World Heritage since 1998, reconstructed by 2010
Wignacourt Arch in Fleur-de-Lys and Santa Venera – demolished in 1944, reconstructed in 2015
Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow – demolished under Stalin in 1931, reconstructed from 1995 to 2000
Golden Gate in Kyiv – dismantled in the Middle Ages , reconstructed in 1982
Arbeia Roman Fort in South Shields – reconstructed in 1986