The Spaces of Unknown

The spaces of unknown Ruins

Linda Martinez

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University of East London History and Theory AR6046

The spaces of unknown Ruins

U2037138 Linda Jennifer Martinez Ubilluz 2022/2023

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Abstract

The curiosity of the people is a great point to start from; the human being is constantly questioning everything since they are kids and that is something that does not change with time. A great question is why are we attracted to ruins, something that is abandoned, old, or destroyed? It does not make sense since it is supposed that it is something useful or unsightly.

Nowadays, we witness a series of old buildings or ruins around our cities which we do not know about, there are some, which are on a big scale or where a historical event has happened, popular buildings with thousands of visitants every year. However, some of them are just forgotten by the people, there are just old places in the street.

Most of the old buildings usually tell the history of the place, and some resources help to understand facts from the past. But is it just that, what ruins are about? What else can they tell us? There is where your imagination plays the main role because nobody can ever be entirely certain about the past, we were not there and there does not exist an absolutely true. These places can be as many things as you can imagine.

This essay will show how ruins play with our minds and why people feel attracted to or fascinated by them. That much that exists thousands of restorations that preserve pieces of the past which show how attached we are to it. Additionally, present how the present has learned from the past both socially and structurally. These will be studied based on two case studies, one popular on a big scale as the Neues museum and the last one will be a place where the ruins have not been altered as the Ingapirca ruins.

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Table of Contents

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………….....................…2 Table of contents…………………………………………………………………...........………………….…..3 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………................………………..5-6 People and ruins……………………………………………………………………………………............…....7 The inquisitiveness of the unknown………………………………………………...…8-9 The similarity of it to us……………………………………………………………….…10-13 Answers for the present……………………………………………………………..…........14-15 Alteration………………………………………………………………………………………….…...............16-17 Viollet le Duc and Ruskin’s position about restoration………………..18-23 The preservation and ruination………………………………………………………..24-26 Case studies……………………………………………………………………………………….…...............27-31 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………….................32-33 List of Figures ………………………………………………………………………………………...............34 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………..............…..35-36

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Introduction

Let’s start from the beginning, what is a ruin? It simply is something destroyed. This came from many reasons as natural facts as well as man-made disasters. A ruin is well known for its past survival which is reflected in its structure, walls, floors, columns, and any other structural element. They are loved by people because it is a resource that gives us evidence about the past and helps us to understand what has happened in the world. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that even with all that evidence, humans need to imagine that reality, this is just a tool. Nowadays, it is used many techniques to keep these relics in the city such as renovation, restoration, preservation, or conservation since they are protected by the government, it is our closer resource to our past as well as for their unique characteristics. Not all buildings have the same luck of having a long life, there exist many arguments about the alteration on them, some people think that it is better to destroy them completely and build a new one, giving them a new life, as well as there are many others who think it is better to leave them as they are to have that evidence, however, there are other

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who are in between who think they can be preserved and renewed at the same time. This will be compared based on important architect’s points of view, who were closer to these works.

Around all the world some old structures still stand, all for different reasons and showing different factors, but something very important here is that not all of them are preserved in the same way, there are some which are more altered than others which are barely touched by the human. However, all of them are recognized if something important has happened to them. And that is evidenced by the number of people who go to admire them every day, and it is astonishing how something that is on ruins is so attractive to people, maybe the ruins and humanity have more in common than you imagined, like the process of life on the earth, being things without one.

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Ruins and people

From an early age, the human being is attracted to the things that he does not know about, it is born to learn, and that is why kids are every moment asking questions or touching things that they do not recognize because they are curious about life, and they are looking for answers. Nobody is born with all the knowledge; life is a learning process.

Here is where the relationship between the ruins and humans starts:

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The inquisitiveness of the unknown

There exist two types of ruins, famous buildings and the ones forgotten by the people. The first ones are where had happened historical events or those who help complete the history of the city. On the other hand, there are the other buildings like the ones that are across the street that every neighbour knows about, but they are just there because nothing “important” happened in there, however, as with every building, they do have history and there is where the people take part of it.

Most of these buildings are destroyed because of natural facts such as the weather and because they are not taken care of.

Consequently, the materials of it are in bad condition, rusty, broken, or decomposed. Despite this, there is still life, some plants even grow on it. If you imagine all these details in a building, it is kind of creepy and makes you wonder even more why people go to such places.

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A professor of psychology asserts that

the standard features of haunted houses trigger feelings of dread because they push buttons in our brains that evolved long before houses even existed ​(McAndrew, 2015)

Feelings make us react differently depending on the situations, sometimes make us scream when we got scared or cry when sadness comes, everyone feels the need to feel these emotions because these are what makes us a person. Going around these houses it is possible to feel the adventure and the excitement, the feeling of being alive. What are we without these psychological mechanisms? if we do not react to the danger, everyone would die but this is our preservation instinct, which makes us proceed with caution when the threat is uncertain.

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The similarity of it to us

Born, grow, and die, the timeline of life. This refers to every life, not just the human one. Currently, when an architectural project is presented, there should be on record how long the building is going to stand for because we are already aware that nothing lasts forever.

Born

Grow

Die

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The relationship between the people and the buildings can be one of the facts about why we are attracted to them. Maybe the evidence that they are so similar in the process of life is what makes us be curious about it because at least in a building you can see its last stage when it is a ruin, however in a person when we die, that is our end as far as we are aware of, and we do not know with certainty what happens after it. At this point, our imagination plays an important role because in a ruin, it is possible to imagine its past, present, and future as Piranesi did in his paintings of old Rome. “His idea of invention through a wide-ranging study of the past” ​ (Wilton-Ely, 1993)​this was Piranesi, an artist with architectural fantasies who through his etching of ancient Rome shows the poetic beauty of ruins, as one of his finest fantasies The Magnificent Port (figure 1), mixing classical ornaments, giving a stronger significance by the light and shadow and adding his detailed fantasies on it.

Figure 1 Etching by Piranesi (1750) Magnificent Port. “Parte di ampio magnifico Porto”

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When we die important people are remembered as important buildings are and ordinary people with the time are just forgotten as ordinary buildings

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The health of a person is based on the kind of alimentation or lifestyle they have and if they are physically and mentally well; they are calculable factors as the building when they are not well cared their life is not going to be long, things that can be calculated and that professionals are based on, are the quality of the materials, how strong they are, if they are resistant to the weather, fire, corrosion, etc as well as structural techniques. At the same time, incalculable factors such as accidents, explosions, wars, viruses, etc are things that nobody can predict and can finish any life, as much as that of a human being as that of a building. But here is the difference, after these catastrophes a human is buried while the building remains there, in ruins. There is now an extensive list of examples such as the ancient Roman city of Pompeii (figure 2)which exposed the reality of the buildings, and how unpredictable events can end with a city.

Figure 2 The well-preserved ruins of Pompeii

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Answers for the present

A set of enigmas with multiple answers or no answers (Barkan, 1999)

That is what a ruin give us, as much certain as uncertain about the past, present and future because as many answers we find, the more question we get.

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History is what attached us to the past and this is how we find the answer to today's reality, with evidence. A building in ruins has survived events that people could not, a huge sunk in the ground can be the evidence of a bomb, and a small hole in a wall can tell us about bullets that were used in a shooting. They are the small fragments, cracks, and broken pieces which give us clues about the uncertain. And that is how it has been throughout all these years, all the information that we have about the past is small pieces of evidence that were recollected to create different theories, and the one which has more pieces recollected and is verifiable in one way or another is the valid one. Notwithstanding all these proofs are just the recollection of fragments to create a truth that nobody can be 100 percent sure about its accuracy. Simply, because it is not possible to come back the time and prove it.

As it was presented, ruins can teach, show, and warn us about life, that is what we should learn about them. Talking about the architectural field, they can show the type of design that was practiced in the past, what techniques and materials were used, how long they have lasted and it is like that how we improve the buildings and consequently the city, learning from the past through ruins, finding the weak points of these designs and making them better.

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Types of alteration

The decision to take over a ruin if they want to keep them, can be renovated, restored, preserved, or conservated, but what are all these tongue twisters? They are just a type of alteration; the only difference between them is that they are altered to different degrees but all of them are touching the past.

As a first degree of alteration, we have conservation which looks to maintain the value or soul of the building, secondly, the preservation which seeks to keep the building from its death, from its destruction, moreover, there is restoration which is the action of returning something to its original condition, the condition that someone decides is important and as last level of alteration there is renovation which means made it look new, in this one is not important the essence of the building, there are no restrictions to make changes.

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All of these alterations aim to keep something from the past by different techniques, but what is the real purpose of this? Why do we have so many words to describe the destruction of something? In the end, that is what this is about, the destruction of something, no matter how hard they try but it would never be the same, we simply cannot bring back the past. It is true that we can mimic it but is that what are we looking for? Maybe if the ruins are not touched by the humans, they can tell us more about their real history, past, construction, and time but that is the discussion presented above.

Restoration

Renovation

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Preservation

Conservation

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Viollet le Duc and Ruskin’s position about restoration

For Ruskin, the restoration is impossible, it is something imaginary or false directly. As he quotes in Seven lamps of architecture

Restoration means the most total destruction which a building can suffer It is impossible to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture (Ruskin, 1849)​.

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If you think about it, as more perfect the work of restoration is as more altered it is, It had to pass through many processes to make it similar to the old one, nevertheless, it would never be the same since as he said:

that spirit which is given only by the hand and the eye of the workman can never be recalled​ (Ruskin, 1849)​

the ability and knowledge of the construction are different, each construction worker has its way of work and approach.

Back in the day,

technology was not as advanced as it is now, and we did not have the same tools which can be an advantage and disadvantage at the same time since maybe the work nowadays is not as carefully or detailed as it can be done easily. It is not the same to cut a piece of wood with a saw than to cut it with a chainsaw, the final product can be similar but not the same.

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I would say it cannot be a single person or association. A building is done through teamwork, it is necessary engineers, designers, electricians, architects, etc, and this is just the creative and construction part, after these, there are “the paper owner” as I called them, the ones who based on legal documents own the building, additionally, what about the people who used the building? They are part of the building too, they have spent time there, they have worked in the facilities and damaged the building, therefore they have used it. So no, the building has not had a single owner, but that does not mean that it is untouchable.

Even the materiality is not identical, since with the passing of time the resources have changed. For instance, it is not possible to find the exact same quality of stone or wood as thousand years ago, why? a useful word to describe this is “adaptation”, something that since the beginning of the days had happened, people have to get adapted to different conditions and it is like that how we evolve, however, this affects not only living beings but also non-living things which are used to build. As an example, the stone is possible to identify its age or even its strength, but everything depends on the condition where this is found which has changed with time, that is why it is not realizable to use the same material as before, maybe it is the same type but not the same quality, it is irreplicable.

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Along with Ruskin’s thinking, there is something that he quoted about the building of the past:

We have no right to touch them they are not ours​ (Ruskin, 1849)​

Who is the owner of the ruins? The government? The architect? Who is the person who can take decisions about the building?

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In contrast, there is Viollet le Duc an important architect well known for his restoration of Notre Dame de Paris, he quoted:

To restore a building is not to preserve it to repair or rebuild it it is to reinstate it in a condition of completeness which could never have existed at any given time ​

(Viollet-le-Duc, 1854-1868)​

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From my point of view, this phrase aims to change the ruins, he does not want to mimic something, he wants to change it, add something to it. He is clear that he cannot do the same, but he may improve it. If we see the restoration as a way where things can be better, it can count as a solution, why should we preserve something if it can be upgraded? The answer to this question depends on what the people are looking for, depends on what part or essence of the building is important. However, that depends on people’s perception, what is good for me to maintain in a building is not the same as what is good for another person. Before was pointed out about the ownership of the ruins which brings us to the point where the preservation or restoration decisions are made, how to decide where the innocence of the building dies is something which just a person with a full understanding of the building can possibly make, nevertheless there is not a neutral point or right or wrong, everything is just a design decision from the decision maker.

everything is just a design decision from the decision maker Linda Martinez

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The preservation and ruination It has been talked about big alterations in the buildings but, what about the preservation level,

An old building is multivalent

​ (Scott, 2008)​

The significance of a building can be important now as thousands of years ago however, it may not be at the same level or because of the same reason.

When a building is built is outstanding for its function and because it is something new-fangled for the time but if you replicated the same building now, it is something already seen so, it does not have the same value. However, the worth can increase or decrease when it is visible in its function but its essence (as a ruin). The value that is given when something is unique and irreplicable, is something that just time can give to them. However, this one will not be seen until the building is not working anymore.

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As far as I am concerned there are many techniques, materials and products apply to buildings to make them look like the old ones, however, there is a part in the book On altering architecture where said that

the preservation of a building is like preserving a corpse trying to stop the aging in the building ​

(Scott, 2008)​

But why? why should we stop something natural, something which shows the beauty of a building? In the ruins are visible the past, present, and future, why stop on one and make it fake? It can be considered that the preservation of buildings is done because the history that they are telling us now is not going to be the same that they are going to show us 10 years later therefore, as before this depends on what is important about it.

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Something interesting about this process is that even to start this process of alteration the building first has to be investigated, studied, and broken.

It does not sound quite right to break something if what we are looking for is to keep it, even so during the process, there are parts of the building that are removed because they are not useful anymore or because of safety reasons, as well as there are some parts which are inserted so be it to mimic something which means there are adaptions that have to be created which bring us to the destruction part, as a minimum it is, we still knocking down a part of it. The decision that must be made for the building requires imagination and guesswork; the designer has no other option.

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Case studies

Two opposite ruins, one which has been recently altered mixing new and old techniques to still remember the history and on the other hand, there is a ruin from a long time ago that has not been touched but is in an open space. They are The Ingapirca ruins and the Neues Museum both with historical backgrounds.

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The Neues museum

The Neues museum was built in Berlin in 1855, designed by the architect Friedrich August Stüler, something outstanding about it was its classic style staircase at the entrance of the building (figure 3), it was like a big welcome to every visitor, however during the second war world, it was damaged by bombs in all its structure (figure 4), and it was thought to be demolished. Unlike all museums around, this one was not renovated for decades, until 2003 when the process of the reconstruction of the museum was started by David Chipperfield Architects who clarified, what it was possible to maintain and shows history he kept it, but the structure which was damaged in a large scale was removed and redesign. There were some parts such as the staircase, which was rebuilt in size and shape, using a modern vocabulary (figure 5). This is an example where the building was highly altered but still tells us about historical facts instead of being a ruin in its death stage, it was given a new life.

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Figure 3 The staircase of the Neues Museum, ca. 1920 Figure 4 The damaged staircase of the Neues Museum after the Second World War Figure 5 The staircase of the Neues Museum, 2019

Neues museum life cycle Linda Martinez

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Ingapirca ruins

Ingapirca is one of the most important and well-conserved ruins in Ecuador (figure 6). It is well known for its historical architecture as well as for its presence in historical events, where two different cultures such as the Incas and Cañaris which were against each other at the beginning, were living in peace in the same place, each one with its own traditions and that includes the mix of the culture in an architectural way, creating complex structures using vernacular techniques and place the buildings in specific points where the light of the sun would fall through the centre. Nowadays it is still being used by indigenous people to celebrate the Inti Raymi traditional religious ceremony in honour of the god Inti which means sun (figure 7). This is an example of ruins in their last stage where there was no need to do a high alteration to be remembered and used by the people. On the contrary, what is found now is just fragments of broken walls and the footprint of vernacular structures, and even with that small amount of information that is what gives culture and history to the country.

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Figure 6 Ingapirca ruins Figure 7 Inti Raymi cerenomy in Ingapirca ruins

Ingapirca cultural space Linda Martinez

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Conclusion

Taking everything into account, ruins have more in common with the humans that we imagined which give us answer to understand why are attracted to them such as their power of them into our emotions, their similitude in the timeline of life, and their connection with history. Questioning our reality is a natural sense for humans since we are kids, that is what ruins bring to us, spaces that have been abandoned and destroyed by time, they are the ones that have the answers because they have survived in one way or another the past, something uncertain for us.

There is possible to understand and make sense of the present, taking the small fragments to create theories, because even having all the proofs in our hands, it is not possible to be absolutely right about the past since it is something where we were not present, and the time cannot come back to prove it. However, there is where our imagination takes place since it is taking all the broken and damaged structures to create marvellous fantasies in our minds.

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As was stipulated before, their timeline is like ours however after their death, they may have another opportunity, they can live abandoned for many years or altered on different scales like renovated, restored, preserved, or conservated. There exist many arguments about these scales because as is normal not everyone agrees with their destruction. On one hand, we have the theory that when a building is altered loses all its meaning and anything that is done over it is a destruction of the beauty of the past, on the contrary, there is when an alteration gives life to something that is dead. However, there are ruins that are renovated and changed into a modern form which gives them another life, along with important aspects of their past as the Neues museum in Berlin. But that is not the only possibility to maintain the past and life of a building, it was seen that in the Ingapirca ruins which are almost unaltered, their past is clear even being in ruins and it has a new life with the celebrations that still been done every year by the indigenous people.

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List of figures

[1]Magnificent Port. “Parte di ampio magnifico Porto” Opere Varie,1750.

British Architectural Library, RIBA, London

[2] The well-preserved ruins of Pompeii. IRYNA SHPULAK, GETTY IMAGES [Online] Available at: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/ pompeii [Accessed 03 01 2023].

[3] The staircase of the Neues Museum, ca. 1920, eastward perspective of the Kore Hall. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Zentralarchiv. [Online] Available at: https://www.artsillustrated.in/architecture/pock-marked-memories/ [Accessed 04 01 2023].

[4] The damaged staircase of the Neues Museum after the Second World War, eastward perspective of the Kore Hall. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Zentralarchiv / Rosa Mai. [Online] Available at: https://www.artsillustrated.in/ architecture/pock-marked-memories/ [Accessed 04 01 2023].

[5] The staircase of the Neues Museum, 2019, eastward perspective of the Kore Hall. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Achim Kleuker. [Online] Available at: https://www.artsillustrated.in/architecture/pock-marked-memories/ [Accessed 04 01 2023].

[6] Ingapirca ruins, 2016, Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural [Online] Available at: https://www.patrimoniocultural.gob.ec/complejo-arqueologico-ingapirca/[Accessed 04 01 2023].

[7] Inti Raymi cerenomy in Ingapirca ruins, 2021, Ecuador travel. [Online] Available at: https://ecuador.travel/press/inti-raymi-la-fiesta-del-sol-ylas-cosechas-en-ingapirca/[Accessed 04 01 2023].

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​​Bibliography

​​Barkan, L., 1999. Unearthing the Past: Archaeology and Aesthetics in the Making of Renaissance Culture. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press.

​Esher, L. B. V., c1982. The continuing heritage. London: Franey.

​Hill, J., 2019. Architecture of ruins: Designing on the past, present and future. London: Routledge.

​Kulturbesitz, S. P., n.d. Masterplan Museumsinsel. [Online] Available at: https://www.museumsinsel-berlin.de/en/buildings/neuesmuseum/#:~:text=The%20original%20construction%20of%20the,Island%20 following%20the%20Altes%20Museum.

[Accessed 04 01 2023].

​Macdonald, F., 2014. BBC. [Online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140304-ruin-lustpompeii-to-detroit [Accessed 03 01 2023].

​McAndrew, F. T., 2015. The Conversation. [Online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/evolutionary-psychologyexplains-why-haunted-houses-creep-us-out-48209 [Accessed 02 01 2023].

​Ruskin, J., 1849. Seven lamps of architecture. London: Smith, Elder & Co..

​Scott, F., 2008. On Altering architecture. London: Routledge. ​​​

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​Viollet-le-Duc, 1854-1868. Dictionnarire raisonne de l'Architecture. iii ed.

Paris: s.n.

​Wilton-Ely, J., 1993. Piranesi : as architect and designer. London: Yale university press.

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