Reusing postmodern heritage : how literary theories can help

While postmodern heritage is slowly gaining more and more recognition, a new question arises : what architectural language should we use to intervene on such pieces of architecture ? As the vocabulary used in postmodern architecture includes nods and references to previous architectural styles, intervening on postmodern heritage takes more than being « distinct from the architectural composition and [bearing] a contemporary stamp » (Venice Charter, art.9) to create a harmonious and relevant addition or transformation that « [does] not detract from the interesting parts of the building, its traditional setting, the balance of its composition and its relation with its surroundings » (art.12). The language of postmodern architecture is one of, if not the, foremost characteristic of the architectural style that should be understood and mastered before any addition or transformation. Principles used for older building’s restoration or adaptive reuse often prove unsuitable for this specific architecture.
Drawing the bridge between architecture and literature – as Robert Venturi and Sir Charles Jencks did before us – enables us to import literary concepts like transtextuality in the field of architecture. As we already have shown in a previous research (Coq 2019), these concepts, derived from Gerard Genette’s 1982 book Palimpsests, help us understand and master the different tones implied by the use of references, hints and nods in postmodern architecture. In this contribution, linked to the CoToCoCo Project (Conceptual Toolkit for Contemporary Conservation), we will explore how they can be used to think a vocabulary of intervention that fits and strikes the balance between hints to the past and contemporary additions, using examples from Belgium, such as the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (C.H.U.) by Charles Vandenhove in Liège.
Coq, Maxime. 2019. “Un nouvel ordre classique… et (post-)moderne : rhétorique de la colonne dans l’œuvre de Charles Vandenhove”. Bulletin de la CRMSF (in press).