Materan Contradictions

Architecture, Preservation and Politics
Neuauflage 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4094-1207-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 384 Seiten, Format (B × H): 180 mm x 250 mm, Gewicht: 964 g

Reihe: Ashgate Studies in Architecture

Shaped by encrusted layers of development spanning millennia, the southern Italian city of Matera is the ultimate palimpsest. Known as the Sassi, the majority of the ancient city is composed of thousands of structures carved into a limestone cliff and clinging to its walls. The resultant menagerie of forms possesses a surprising visual uniformity and an ineffable allure. Conversely, in the 1950s Matera also served as a crucible for Italian postwar urban and architectural theory, witnessed by the Neorealist, modernist expansion of the city that developed in aversion to the Sassi. In another about-face, the previously disparaged cave city has now been recast as a major tourist destination, UNESCO World Heritage Monument, and test subject for ideas and methods of preservation. Set within a sociopolitical and architectural history of Matera from 1950 to the present, this book analyses the contemporary effects of preservation on the city and surrounding province. More broadly, it examines the relationship between and interdependence of preservation and modernism within architectural thought. To understand inconsistencies inherent to preservation, in particular its effect of catalyzing change, the study lays bare planners' and developers' use of preservation, especially for economic goals and political will. The work asserts that preservation is not a passive, curatorial pursuit: it is a cloaked manifestation of modernism and a powerful tool often used to control economies. The study demonstrates that preservation also serves to influence societies through the shaping of memory and circulation of narratives.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Toxey, Anne Parmly

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften, Biologie: Sachbuch, Naturführer
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Architektur: Allgemeines
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltschutz, Umwelterhaltung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Prologue; 1: Geographic Situation; 2: Social Geography and Political Context of Modern Matera; 3: 1945–1952; 4: 1953–1970; 5: 1971–2001; 6: 2002–2006; Epilogue

Über Autor(innen)

Dr Anne Toxey is Director of Toxey/McMillan Design Associates, and Adjunct Professor, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA