Construído sobre Modernismo: a base teórica de preservação do patrimônio contemporâneo na Espanha

Abstract

Modernity and heritage preservation are sometimes regarded as opposite ideas; however, the two concepts are inseparably linked throughout the 20th century. The 50th anniversary of the organization ICOMOS (founded in 1965) provided an opportunity to revise the connection of monument protection and modern principles, a duality that accompanied the last century of architecture. The general reform of monument preservation movements was triggered by the destruction of the World Wars, followed by the global identity crisis coming from the modernist city reconstructions all over Europe. Due to the ignorance of the desire for historic continuity, late-Modern architecture caused intense social criticism in several European countries. However, the special historic-cultural background of the Iberian Peninsula created a scenario of architectural trends and a development of monument protection that differed from other parts of Europe. This study investigates the history of architectural heritage preservation in Spain, analyses the parallel methodologies and interactions of Modernism and monument protection from a theoretical point of view, reflecting on the specific conditions of the country during the 20th century, giving a general view of the strong embeddedness of heritage preservation in Modernism. Keywords: built heritage, contemporary architecture, Modernism, rehabilitation, Spanish architecture, theory of monument preservation.