Preserving the Material Authenticity: A Method of Preserving the Truth

Abstract

In heritage preservation projects, the main aim is to preserve the authenticity, and one of the most interesting and important elements of heritage is its materiality. The materiality of heritage, as such, combines its cultural, historical, artistic and architectural characteristics, and thus, materiality preservation affects its many values, but most of all - on its authenticity. Preservation of material authenticity by following “truth to materials” concept is a complex process, and it depends on many factors, such as conservation-science studies, interdisciplinary approach, architects ideology, technical solutions, etc. This paper discusses methods, technical solutions, as well as architectural approaches for different heritage preservation projects, intending to analyse preservation of the material authenticity critically. Different methods of “revealing” the truth of heritage could lead to different interpretations of “truth to materials” concept in preservation projects. For example, these architectural-conservation approaches could be a traditional one, like bringing the original appearance with the reconstruction of missing parts using original materials from authentic material sources and application techniques, or different and experimental approaches of creating new materials which will be incorporated in the (fragments of a) historical building. The hypothesis of the paper considers that preserving the truth imply to preserve properties and qualities of a material that are not primary, but its poetic, sensuous qualities, that could be felt by all senses. These qualities embed only in specific architectural contexts generated in special conditions. This also leads to proposal for new valorisation of materials, and it could be concluded that this is necessary for the preservation project to be successful, and for authenticity to be preserved.