Authentic reconstruction: authenticity, architecture and the built Heritage

Littlefield, D. 2019. Authentic reconstruction: authenticity, architecture and the built Heritage. International Journal of Heritage Studies. 25 (2), pp. 221-224. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2018.1476399

TitleAuthentic reconstruction: authenticity, architecture and the built Heritage
TypeBook review
AuthorsLittlefield, D.
Abstract

It is two decades since US architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable wrote of her loathing of the term ‘authentic reproduction,’ damning it as a perversion of language. It must therefore have been with great deliberation that the editors of this book choose use this very term; indeed, John Bold writes in the introduction that the title is ‘deliberately provocative'. There does indeed seem to be something perverse in the concept of a reproduction embodying such a sense of originality, essence, aura or value that it can be said to be in any way authentic. However, observers of developments within the fields of heritage and authenticity will know that authentic reproduction is not as oxymoronic as would it would appear. As this book makes clear, the notion of authenticity is socially critical, though complex and nuanced; equally, the need for a calculated and meaningful response to the loss of historic sites is pressing. The conclusion being that some sort of reconstruction might meet those intangible needs of cultural identity and a sense of place, while delivering something architecturally truthful and useful.

Keywordsauthenticity
heritage
reconstruction
loss
JournalInternational Journal of Heritage Studies
Journal citation25 (2), pp. 221-224
ISSN1352-7258
1470-3610
Year2019
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2018.1476399
Web address (URL)https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13527258.2018.1476399
Publication dates
Published online25 May 2018
Published in print2019

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