Digital Records, Heritage Conservation and Post-earthquake Re-construction in Chile

It is easy, in countries where buildings can be expected to last for thousands of years if they are very well built and maintained with care, to believe that restoration back to the original is the be all and end all of preservation. But buildings of this nature are rare and historical continuity over long periods to support continuous maintenance is close to non-existent. In addition, buildings are continually repurposed, and this will inevitably have an impact on their fabric.

Chile, with highly active earthquake zones and a rapidly developing culture and economy, is a petri dish in which concepts of conservation can be exposed to extreme challenges and this book is a really welcome, erudite and significant contribution to the subject. As society moves forward it is plausible to believe that in many cases a complete record of past buildings will become more significant than the retention of a few of the actual buildings.

Professor Stephen Gage, The bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.

Relics, remnants and records are something of the past that remains in the present, thresholds of knowledge that signify possibilities of the future. Bernadette Devilat’s book is bringing a novel and much needed discussion on the nature, form and urgency of records, memory in the digital age as some form of contemporary Noah’s Arch to intepret the past to preserve some form of future of architecture and built enviornment in general. She is offering care and cautions, erudition and innovation with what she calls re-contruction to a field of pratice often left in a hurry to measure success, evidence and novelty. Across disaster studies, architecture and digital design, Bernadette Devilat’s book is a needed reading for all interested in an architecture of hope.

Professor Camillo Boano, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy; and Development Planning Unit, London