A Postscript on Preservation and Transformation in urban planning and architecture In a recent essay on the redevelopment of central Pforzheim and the impending demolition of two buildings from the postwar period (cfr. Was bleibt von der Stadt des Wiederaufbaus? In: Pforzheimer Zeitung, 08-15-2026, p. 22), I wrote a sentence that was meant almost as …
Authenticity and Integrity in Built Heritage Preservation: How the Notre-Dame de Paris Restoration Contradicts Viollet-le-Duc’s Vision
The decision to rebuild the Notre-Dame spire and roof in a way that incorporated modern methods and materials while maintaining the overall historical design certainly sparked a lot of debate about the approach to heritage restoration, but finally it undermined the original philosophy of Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-79), who built the roof and spire that …
Published by Carmen Belmonte: A Difficult Heritage: Fascist-era Art and Architecture Out of Its Time
Architecture as Ethical Terrain Carmen Belmonte’s edited volume A Difficult Heritage. The Afterlives of Fascist-Era Art and Architecture is less a catalogue of monuments than a meditation on what happens when ideology hardens into stone. For those of us trained to read architecture not only as form but also as cultural instrument, the book offers …
Luigi Monzo 