aha! Ideas & News
Thoughts on Ruins
- Posted On February 8, 2010
- in
- Staff Thoughts
Frank, a project Architect here at AHAdams&Company, has some observations on ruins and their value:
Bells are the opposite of children: they are meant to be heard and not seen. Yet, one of the most popular tourist activities in Philadelphia is to visit the silent Liberty Bell. Its iconic crack draws millions of visitors to see this symbol of the American Revolution and freedom. Its inscription taunts its readers: “Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land and to all the inhabitants thereof,” a biblical command that cannot be carried out with a broken bell.
Why do we revere broken things? Why do we allow ruins of monumental buildings to exist in a decayed state? Although it is not a building, the Liberty Bell embodies this tendency. It certainly would be easier and less expensive to melt down and recast a bell than to rebuild a cathedral. In fact, the Bell’s current condition is a result of a repair attempt after it had already been recast twice. Why was a third recasting prohibitive?
When we look at architectural ruins, we feel connected to the past, yet distant from it- like looking across a long bridge toward a distant shore. The attitude many take toward this connection, however, is that it does not work in both directions, that it connects our present with the past only, instead of also to the future. Architects build with the future in mind, yet when we look at these ruins now we often think only of the past.
Buildings, such as the Parthenon, were built with a high purpose. Even though contemporary Greek society no longer worships in the fashion for which the temple was built, the cultural significance of the building is eternal. It embodies a building form that has come to be synonymous with Democracy, scientific achievement, and civilization. Yet it was not held in such high esteem in the 17th Century, when it was used as a gunpowder magazine. Most of the destruction we see today came in an instant, when it was attacked by enemy mortar fire. Its centuries-long ruinous state has been mostly due to the cost of reconstruction, as is the case with most ruins. Any mention of the Parthenon almost universally evokes an image of a decayed building instead of the magnificent temple it once was. To its credit, however, the Greek government has recently undertaken an initiative to restore the Parthenon.
Other buildings, such as churches and cathedrals, were built with similarly high ideals. Many European churches built in the Middle Ages have been abandoned and left to decay, such as Elgin Cathedral in Scotland. It is either being preserved to honor the past or because its demolition would be too expensive. In either case, we can imagine that if the worshippers who originally venerated the cathedral could see it in its present state, they would rather see it completely demolished than as a ghastly specter of its former splendor.
Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa started its tilt before the construction was even complete. Built as the Campanile, or Bell Tower for the Cathedral of Pisa, it would have been a significant architectural achievement for its grace and elegance had it not been built on unstable soil on insufficient foundations which cause the lean. Recent rescue efforts focused not on correcting the problem entirely but merely on preventing the building’s collapse. We value its imperfection too much to correct it.
When we look at Rome’s Coliseum, it requires no great leap of imagination to see what it would have looked like complete and filled to capacity with thousands of Romans. It has been tantalizingly well–preserved, and is meticulously maintained today by dedicated caretakers. It was constructed so well that its structure could still today host public events, if it were restored to a usable state. Many millions of public dollars are spent on less significant stadium structures. That money, if it must be used on stadiums, could be used to restore a very old, and very good, one.
We can learn much from ruins. What societies of the past have left behind give us much insight into the way they lived, died, believed, and thrived. Often, they are the only evidence we have that a society ever existed. And just as often, they leave us with more questions about the society than they answer. In Mexico, many classic Mayan cities were abandoned in short order, for reasons that are still not clear. Their ruinous remains leave little clue about their departures, only that they had once been occupied by astonishingly advanced societies from whose archaeological remains we can learn much.
For significant architectural ruins, such as those of entire cities that can help us to understand the people that left them behind, it is important that they be preserved and studied so that we can learn as much about them as those ruins will allow. But other historical artifacts, such as the Liberty Bell or the Leaning Tower of Pisa, should not be allowed to continue their tragic trajectory, but should be allowed to fulfill their original purpose. The Liberty Bell is maintained in its cracked state because of its historical significance and because of the millions who come to see it every year. Imagine how many more would come to hear it toll .
Whether buildings are abandoned and left to rot or destroyed consciously, their vestigial remains beg the question: what ideals are preserved with the building’s ruins — those that led to its construction or those that led to its destruction?