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Approaches to conservation: Mutable values, fixed regulations

The 1964 Venice Charter extended the previous notion of the “historical monument” to include “not only great works of art but also to more modest works of the past which have acquired cultural significance with the passing of time.”

What is considered ‘heritage’, as well as the value of heritage itself is constantly evolving, however the “cultural significance” of these “modest works” in official documentation can be simultaneously indefinite and outdated. What validates something significant enough to preserve, for how long and how much of it?

Marseille, said to be “the only antique capital that doesn’t crush us with the monuments of its past”, has in its history been systematically demolished, re-planned and rebuilt. The destruction of the oldest part of the city, the Vieux Port quarter, during World War II was followed by a period of reconstruction which contained its own level of historic erasure. Now on a UNESCO Tentative List for its “cultural heritage of outstanding universal value”, the area consists mainly of 1950s and 1960s housing, with the exception of a handful of protected buildings from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, including Hôtel de Cabre – moved and rotated during the reconstruction to accommodate the widening of a main road.

The project draws from the existing Code du Patrimoine, observations of unofficial architectural preservation in Marseille and other methods of commemoration to create a Code for Marseille, modifying buildings along Marseille’s iconic Vieux Port to design a tourist information centre and boutique hotel accommodation (while maintaining their ‘cultural significance’). Principles are translated into algorithmic modelling tools, creating a rules-based design system to represent the non-negotiable and, at times, non-sensical application of certain policies in the name of conservation.