Restoration/ or Protection (W. Morris, J. Ruskin & E. Violet-le-Duc)

    Cultural Heritage Conservation is an updated term of Restoration, Conservation and Preservation. These three terms are responding same issue which we called Cultural Heritage Conservation topic, however, terminologies are differentiated into Frenchmen to British; Ruskin, Morris to Violet-Le-Duc.

    Violet-Le-Duc was an architect, whose master on restoration and techniques, and which he founded stylistic restoration (a kind of movement we can say). He mentioned restoration as reestablishing a finished estate, or a building with understanding art of the building, or style of the building. He considered on to explain HOW? Firstly, architects should have consciousness of long-standing buildings to restoration it. Then, architect should consider on its own style, or researching about detailed drawings or illustrations etc. However, it did not say that it must reestablish its built era. He considered on how building survived till he found. I mean, he tried to understand each architectural element, or tool. Because each element, or tool could establish, or built in different time period, referred to a different movement, or different era. Thus, he tried to consider on understand the spirit, or essence of the building. If he saw necessity to rebuilt, reconstruct or repair parts, he did in that manner because he already got spirit of architect, and he grant himself right to do it. He used modern approaches to Renaissance or Gothic structures to sustain. In addition, he used reinforced concrete, he updated a castle with roof (which did not exist on past) etc.

    In contrast, preservation was sprawled in England by Ruskin, however, before Ruskin, Morris was strictly against Violet-Le-Duc’s stylistic restoration. According to Morris and Ruskin, monuments of older time periods must protect by architects with its own existence, restoration differentiate essence of the building. Also, they thought that monuments and older structures are not ours, it belongs to humanity. So, he argues that if restoration or protection techniques will change the structure’s own essence, we should maintain its own essence to next generations. And they defined it as protecting and preserving artistic, picturesque, historical, ancient or substantial works.

    To sum up, cultural heritage conservation is an issue that people tried to preserve, conserve, restore, protect their existence; which means their past, their knowledges; and it is hard assumption that it is restoration it is preservation at the time of the era because both ( Le-Duc & Morris, Ruskin) tried to conserve something in a different way, they tried to sustained a building which might destruct. So, ‘’need’’ is important, understanding and re thinking is important while conserving something. Because monumental buildings and historical buildings should have some problem in past; in time it also changed and evaluate to different characteristic, your reestablishment/ or interpretation on conservation is became a layer of cultural heritage, because you will be ‘’past’’ in time, and your touches will survive.