Reflexive palimpsest Designing curatorship of post-war modernism architecture

Abstract

The continuation of post-war modern architecture demands of us architects a reflection on the societal project of post-war modernism and its architectural spatial concepts that goes beyond the matters of monument conservation. Probably more than other layers of building culture, the still existing but already lost heritage of this period has become a stony manifestation of a discourse that can be described as unfinished. In this sense, post-war modernism, in its discontinuity as a process, forms a fertile breeding ground for research about permanence and transiency of space and its reinterpretation in a present of recurring social upheavals. Therefore, eight theses of a ‘reflexive palimpsest’ at the beginning guide into a more profound discussion on the further development of this heritage and thus of the architectural task as a curation of permanent and impermanent spaces and structures.

Keywords: reflexive design, post-war modernism, spatial ressources