As the world confronts a confluence of existential crises at the start of the new millennium, an anthology of theories concerned with historic preservation makes an important and timely contribution in and beyond the field. With the early 21st century increasingly feeling like an age of reckoning, the hangover after centuries of profligacy, this collection of writings helps us to not only reassess our collective built pasts, but also to ponder historic preservation’s vital role in built futures. Containing 96 texts spanning four centuries, this anthology is an outstanding teaching resource that will be an essential entry on the reading list of any course concerned with historic built environments, indeed any built environment. The editor, Professor Jorge Otero-Pailos of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), says the aim was ‘to give students access to that wider international and historical perspective so they could gain a solid footing in the rich intellectual traditions that nourish historic preservation theory’. It achieves these aims admirably.
The content of this weighty 584-page volume comprises a variety of primary sources spanning various geographies, disciplines, and epochs. The earliest writings date from the mid-18th century and some are translated into English for the first time (e.g. Henri Grégoire’s ‘Rapport sur les destructions opérées par le vandalisme, et sur les moyens de le réprimer’). Although billed as theories, which Otero-Pailos defines as ‘an intellectual method for developing knowledge’, the strength of this collection is in its diversity and includes core texts, key ideas, seminal writings, various treatises, and radical manifestoes. These are prefaced by Otero-Pailos’s excellent Introduction, which succinctly explains the rationale for the book, its context and content, and, perhaps most revealingly, its absences. He also acknowledges the discipline’s ambiguity emanating from its contested history, carefully disentangling some of its knottier roots, while making the case that this ambiguity is precisely what makes the field so rich, resilient, and intellectually nourishing.
Every entry is helpfully accompanied by a prefatory summary. These individual introductions are one of the book’s many laudable features, offering vital perspectives and astute observations that, for a younger generation accustomed to textural brevity, will do much to aid student engagement in the works. As for the actual texts, accompanying the usual suspects – Jacobs, Morris, Ruskin, Viollet-le-Duc, etc. – are a cast of characters who, although distinguished in their respective fields, will not likely have taken centre stage alongside so many other more referenced thinkers and doers in the context of historic preservation. The
The ever-evolving landscape of architectural preservation requires a proactive approach that harnesses the power of modern technology and demonstrates how it can reimagine the approach to heritage preservation. ‘New Advances in Building Information Modelling and Engineering Management’ emerges as a timely and critical contribution challenging traditional paradigms and paving new paths for managing built heritage. Aligning with the Built Heritage Journal’s focus on the field of heritage management, the book offers a compelling vision of how Building Information Modelling (BIM) can revolutionise our understanding, protection, and engagement with built heritage.
The book, structured in thirteen chapters, explores the transformative potential of BIM to improve the technical aspects of conservation and restoration. Each chapter covers a specific aspect of using BIM to manage and preserve built structures: from meticulously crafted digital models that breathe life into long-forgotten architectural details to immersive augmented reality experiences that transport us through the layers of time. In this respect, the book promises an exciting glimpse into the future of built heritage management.
Chapters 1 to 6 delve into the application of BIM in building maintenance management, providing practical methodologies to implement the interoperability between BIM and Excel. Taking Chap. 3 as an example, which is about the development of a methodology for the maintenance management of a 19th century building in Porto, Portugal, renovated in 2017, it is noted that one of the drawbacks of BIM is its limitation in the storage of semantic aspects and attributes, thus lacking adequate query functionality (Yang et al. 2020). However, while highlighting the benefits of BIM, more analysis on overcoming associated challenges and costs would be beneficial.
The unique challenges of modelling and managing complex geometries and materials found in older structures can pbuildings, such as historical documents and records. However, these technologies, particularly Hyperledger Fabric and Composer, while can provides transparency, reliabilityush the boundaries of BIM technology and improve its overall capabilities. Chapters 5, 9, 10, and 11 of this book highlight the importance of developing automated and innovative methods for efficient and effective building surveying. The authors explore the use of technology for building surveys. For instance, drone-only photogrammetric and thermographic surveys of historic buildings can effic