The theme of loneliness in a digital world keeps coming up in various articles I have recently read. Last weekend’s Globe & Mail article by Elizabeth Renzetti profiled various people who are isolated in the Global Village. While the article was somewhat unscientific and selective in choosing her stories, it seems that the modern condition…
Category: Activities
Facadism Redux?
For about 20-30 years, facadism has been a compromise between two competing views within architectural conservation. Facadism seems appropriate sometimes, at other times it appears as a false skin or veneer that hides the ‘dirty’ work of a redevelopment and destroys the place’s value. Where is facadism found? On urban streets and on campuses. Rarely…
Entropy & Heritage
The everyday struggle in heritage conservation is the dynamic between entropy and conservation. The former is dynamic and the later is static, and yet this seems to be an inadequate explanation. Old-school conservation was about consciously preventing entropy or decay – whether natural or cultural. Heritage was conceived within the modernist project as preventing a…