Disfigured Past: Unmasking the meaning and identity of historic architecture. Jennifer Tran

Transcription

1 Disfigured Past: Unmasking the meaning and identity of historic architecture Jennifer Tran Abstract With today s popularity for recreational travel and global interests in heritage tourism, historic architectural sites are commonly viewed as tangible representations of the past which embody an important aspect of the sociocultural history of a given place. These views are informed and projected by the heritage tourism industry, whereby historical buildings are physically conserved and presented to reinforce and preserve their valued prior identity. Such practices represent architecture as having a specific historical identity relating to a particular aspect of the building s past, and give the impression that this identity has been physically preserved both consistently and immutably over time. However, these representations of architecture and its identity are questioned when considering notions on the perceptual, cultural, and historical formation of meaning as discussed by theorists such as Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault. These ideas expose architectural identity as a cultural construction of meaning specific to a given context and time as opposed to it being a fixed, tangible entity preserved by built form. This suggests that conventional, preservations and representations of the identity of historical buildings actually portray a distorted contemporary impression of their past identity, whereby the meaning of the building has been culturally adapted according to present values and ideals about the past. Drawing on Bourdieu s and Foucault s theories, this paper explores these issues through an historical analysis of the formation and transition of the identity of an architectural case study in Perth, Western Australia. It focuses on investigating how people and their perception within specific cultural, historical contexts shape as well as distort the identity of built forms, and how this conflicts with existing representations of architecture within the heritage-tourism industry. In doing so, this investigation provides a more critical view of current depictions of historical built forms which offer a limited and idealised articulation of identity and history, and will contribute to an understanding of key issues surrounding the notion of architectural identity. Key Words: Architecture, identity, meaning, history, heritage, historical change, Bourdieu, Foucault.

2 2 Disfigured Past: Unmasking the meaning and identity of historic architecture ***** 1. Introduction Historic built forms are today often brandished as culturally significant sites of history which allow tourists to experience and comprehend architecture as it were in the past. This is reflected in conventional strategies exercised by the heritage-tourism industry which endeavour to preserve the historical significance of buildings through the conservation of their physical appearance and modes of heritage interpretation. These current methods of retaining and presenting historic sites are approached in a manner which emphasises a particular historical context, and portrays architecture with a specific prior identity. In doing so, these depictions of the built environment assume that the meaning and value of built forms are physically embodied and maintained over time, and project the impression that architecture has continuously retained its past identity within a present contextual environment. Although conventionally practiced, these representations of identity are problematized when drawing on theories of meaning expressed in the works of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault. These theories stress the roles of socio-cultural, perceptual and contextual factors involved in the formation of meaning and ideas. By casting these notions onto the context of the built environment, architectural identity is highlighted as a culturally informed and historically specific construct, rather than an immutable or trans-historical entity. These ideas not only challenge current heritage-tourism practices of conserving and presenting built forms, but also suggest that conventional representations of the identity of existing historic sites are misleading and embedded with flaws. In this regard, this paper investigates these issues by critically evaluating present methods of preserving and portraying historic architecture within the heritage-tourism industry. Conceptualising architectural identity as the meaning and value by which built forms are defined, the first section of this paper explains how current heritage-tourism strategies commonly approach and depict architecture with a continuous or timeless identity. This is followed by a discussion of Bourdieu s and Foucault s theories of meaning which draw attention to the cultural, historical nature of identity, and uncover problems with conventional modes of portraying historic sites. Drawing on these ideas in a critical analysis of a case study in Perth, Western Australia, the final section of this paper elaborates on these problems and discusses the flaws in current representations of architecture and identity. 2. Static Identity Within the heritage-tourism industry, current conservation practices for preserving historic architecture commonly seek to maintain the heritage

3 Jennifer Tran value of built forms which are considered to be physical representations of certain significant aspects of the past. These valued historical aspects include particular socio-cultural practices, social figures, or historical events associated with a building in the past, and are often considered to form a valuable part of the collective identity of a given place. 1 In a bid to preserve the significance of historic buildings, revered as tangible expressions of such valued facets of their past, the appearance and physical fabric of these built forms are often restored, furnished and maintained in a manner which historically coincides and reflects its asserted value. Additionally, conventional methods of conserving historic architecture also involve practices of heritage interpretation presented through visitor information, guided tours, signage, imagery or historical re-enactments which inform and showcase a specific past, and socio-cultural aspects related to the heritage significance of the building. 2 Together, these practices view, characterise and exhibit architecture with an immutable historical identity, which is assumed to be prescribed by physical form and historically maintained within a contemporary context. This can be recognised in the conservation and heritage interpretation of historical tourist sites, such as Tranby House (Fig. 1) in Maylands, Perth, Western Australia. Constructed in 1839 during the early colonial period of Western Australia, Tranby House has been conserved by 3 Figure 1. Tranby House, Maylands, Perth (Photograph: Jennifer Tran). Figure 2. Restored 19 th century interior of Tranby, (Photograph: Jennifer Tran). the National Trust of Australia (W.A.) and opened to the public as a house museum since Its conservation is underpinned by heritage assessments of the building s significance, which have predominantly emphasised Tranby as a valuable representation of early 19 th century rural development and way of life of the Swan Colony, and an expression of the form and function of a colonial farmhouse in Western Australia. 4 Additionally, it is also valued for its close association with the Hardey family, whose members

4 4 Disfigured Past: Unmasking the meaning and identity of historic architecture resided at Tranby House during the 1800 s, and were influential in religious, political and business activities of the Swan River Colony and farming district. 5 With the intention of conserving Tranby s perceived historical significance and 19 th century colonial identity, its built fabric and physical appearance has been restored, furnished and retained in a manner which is compatible with the original intention of the place as a residence, and representative of the 1830 s to 1850 s era in which it was built and occupied by the Hardey s. 6 This has involved refurbishing and maintaining the building s physical fabric to prevent it from structurally deteriorating and aesthetically deviating from its revered colonial farmhouse identity. Items belonging to the Hardey s, as well as domestic furniture and farming equipment pertaining to the style of the 1800 s, have also been arranged and displayed within Tranby House (Fig. 2) to reflect previous uses of specific living spaces and everyday practices particular to the period. 7 Therefore, these methods of maintaining the architectural form and colonial appearance of Tranby, as a means to conserve its significance as a former pioneer home of the Hardey s, seem to approach and convey the past identity of the building as an accessible and physically defined entity. Additionally, heritage interpretations of Tranby, in the form of guided tours, verbal descriptions of its history, brochures, signs and portraits displayed throughout its interior, have also been presented to visitors to project and conserve its valued historical identity. Against the backdrop of Tranby s preserved form, these interpretations predominantly inform tourists about members of the Hardey family in terms of their migration from England, their biographies, their residence at Tranby, and their contributions to the Swan River Colony during the 19 th century. 8 Furthermore, colonial building methods and the architectural style associated with the construction of the building are also described to tourists, as well as domestic living rituals and rural practices which might have been carried out during the 1800 s. 9 By consistently defining Tranby in terms of its previous occupants, use and conditions within the 19 th century, these interpretive depictions of the building offer a historically rigid portrayal of Tranby House, as they project the impression that it has possessed and maintained this fixed identity of a former colonial farmhouse associated with the Hardey family, since the 1830 s. Similarly, these trans-historical ideas and projections of identity also seem to be echoed across the globe in the conservation and interpretation of other existing historic tourist sites, such as the Tower of London with its medieval themed artefacts, furnishings, tours and re-enactments; Shakespeare s former birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon with its 16 th century furnished interiors; the restoration of Leonardo Da Vinci s 16 th century last place of residence at Close Luce in Amboise, France; and The Forbidden City in Beijing, China with its preserved dynastic artefacts and imperial tourist

5 Jennifer Tran costumes. Like Tranby House, these existing conventional conceptions of retaining the historical significance of built forms commonly regard the identity of historic architecture as a preservable tangible construct, and tend to thematically articulate buildings in terms of a specific historical period and particular prior identity. In doing so, these practices conceptualise and portray the identity of architecture as a timeless inherent property of built form that has been historically maintained over time. 3. Bourdieu, Foucault and the Formation of Meaning Although commonly accepted, these conventional notions and depictions of identity within the heritage-tourism industry are questioned when considering theories on the cultural and historical formation of meaning. Such theories are discussed by Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault, and suggest that architectural identity is a culturally shaped and contextually specific construct, as opposed to a preservable trans-historical entity. For example, Bourdieu s sociological concepts and notion of habitus discusses how the ways in which people interpret and respond to their environment are framed by their knowledge, familiarised ideas, and personal habitual experiences within the socio-cultural context of their surroundings. He explains that the knowledge which people hold and their familiarity of ideas are shaped from their own past encounters, as well as personal everyday experiences of being within the socio-cultural conditions of their environment. It is through these everyday experiences that people develop a feel of prevailing norms and accepted ideas practiced within the particular context of their surroundings. From this, they internalise aspects of these prevailing norms, ideas and practices through their personal repeated encounters and experiences. According to Bourdieu, it is this familiarity and subconscious internalisation of existing contextual norms and ideas, intertwined with knowledge shaped from past, personal socio-cultural encounters, which informs the particular way people react and make sense of their environment. 10 Therefore, Bourdieu s theories suggest that people s interpretation of their surroundings, and the meanings they perceive of it, are derived from individual aspects of experience and perception, which are tied to specific social, cultural, and contextual conditions of their experienced environment. On a similar note, Foucault s particular notion of discourse emphasizes the cultural and historically specific formation of meaning and ideas. In The Order of Things, Foucault explains that people make sense of reality by ordering or assigning things with meaning that is discursively shaped within the specific context out of which it is produced. 11 He highlights that a particular socio-cultural context produces its own specific order of knowledge, or particular discourse (all forms of knowledge, accepted ideas, meanings and practices), which informs, entails and limits the possibilities of 5

6 6 Disfigured Past: Unmasking the meaning and identity of historic architecture what ideas are thought; what meanings are perceived of things; and what is considered to be true within a certain historical period. In other words, particular ideas, meanings of things or practices do not form or exist in isolation, but rather, their construction and existence are made possible through their relation to a web of other existing forms of knowledge or practices which inform and rationalise them within a given historical context. In this regard, Foucault argues that particular meanings and ideas exist only within the specific historical context and discursive conditions which inform and allow them to be possible. 12 Therefore, Foucault s concepts emphasise that the meaning of things are not historically continuous or consistent, as they are specifically formed and rationally understood according to particular discursive contextual conditions of a given historical period. By projecting Bourdieu s and Foucault s theories onto the context of the built environment, this infers that people construct and endow architecture with meaning or value, rather than it being embodied and expressed by architectural form. Since people can only understand things according to the order of knowledge, or discourse, prevailing within their existing environment, Bourdieu s and Foucault s concepts indicate that people draw on such accustomed forms of knowledge and cultural conditions when constructing architectural meaning, in order to make sense of architecture within the given historical context of which it is perceived in. In other words, architectural meaning is culturally formed and rationalised according to familiarised socio-cultural conditions and the order of knowledge specific to the contextual setting out of which people perceive and understand built forms. This implies that the formation of architectural identity is not only influenced by the existing forms of knowledge and contextual circumstances of a particular time, but it also depends on people s awareness of these conditions, which can only be obtained through their own experiences of being within the specific context from which these conditions exist. Therefore, this highlights that architectural identity is historically specific and culturally adapted to the particular socio-cultural environment and context of prevailing ideas, practices, norms and values from which it is rationalised, formed and understood. Thus, against conventional practices of preserving and representing the historical significance of architectural tourist sites, these ideas implied by the works of Bourdieu and Foucault raises the question: Can the past identity of a building really be preserved, maintained or even exist within a contemporary context? And if not, then what cultural, historical reality and identity of architecture is actually being represented to visitors by the heritage-tourism industry? 4. Illusions of the Past These questions are explored by adopting Foucault s and Bourdieu s theories of meaning in a historical analysis of the identity of Tranby House.

7 Jennifer Tran A critical assessment of the past and present identity of this site in the light of these theories suggest that the preserved colonial identity of Tranby presented by today s heritage industry has not been historically maintained by the building, nor did it exist within the historical period of which it refers to. This is recognised in the contrast between the socio-cultural significance of Tranby during the 19 th century, and its heritage significance within today s context. What was once considered a home by a newly settled European family of three, to protect against a harsh and unfamiliar environment, and which operated as a farmhouse to harvest food for survival during the context of Western Australia s early 1840 s, Tranby House is now currently perceived, treated and showcased as a historical artefact of the past. 13 Having received colonial styled facelifts since the 1970 s, Tranby s architectural shell is currently adorned with objects, farming tools and furniture pertaining to the 1800 s era, all arranged within its empty spaces based on contemporary ideas of what a colonial home during the period looked like. No longer privately utilised for domestic or agricultural purposes, Tranby s interior is currently exposed and accessible to the public: tour guides narrate aspects of the building s history; they describe the Hardey s who resided there; and demonstrate how farm tools or domestic objects would have been used, whilst tourists gaze upon the assembled artefacts displayed before them. 14 Thus, shifting from its specific agricultural, domestic and familial function and value within the particular conditions of the 1800 s, Tranby House is now leisurely observed by the public, and revered as a historical object associated with certain aspects perceived of the past. This transition indicates that despite the physical vividness and conservation of Tranby s 19 th century appearance and form, its identity within the 1800 s has not been preserved nor reconstructed within a present context. Drawing on Bourdieu s and Foucault s theories, this is because Tranby s identity within the 19 th century was rationalised, shaped and understood according to the particular order of knowledge, socio-cultural practices and experienced conditions prevailing within the specific context of the time. As such, Tranby s past identity can only exist within the specific lived contextual conditions of the 1800 s from which it was formed and perceived in. Considering these conditions of the past have now departed, Tranby s identity during the 19 th century can therefore not be attained nor physically revived within today s changed contextual setting and sociocultural circumstances. Instead, the building is now experienced, perceived and understood from a contemporary perspective within a shifted present context of accepted ideas, norms, practices, values and ideals about the past. Additionally, because people can only make sense of things according to the existing contextual conditions and familiarised order of knowledge prevailing within their time, this implies that within today s context, Tranby House and its past are inevitably viewed through a 7

8 8 Disfigured Past: Unmasking the meaning and identity of historic architecture contemporary contextual lens framed by current experiences, accepted ideas, values and norms which colourise current perceptions of Tranby s past identity. Since contemporary views and experiences of Tranby are historically detached from the specific conditions of the past, and informed by current socio-cultural value systems, ideas and practices of the present, current timeless depictions of Tranby s identity (as a colonial pioneer home of the Hardey family) are thus unveiled as contemporary, superficial, idealised fabrications of the building s identity during the 1800 s. This undermines current heritage-tourism practices which aim to preserve the historical identity of built forms, and suggests that existing static portrayals of the identity of historic tourist sites are actually misleading contemporary illusions of the past condition of architecture. 5. Conclusion Although conventionally exercised and accepted by the heritagetourism industry, existing trans-historical and preserved representations of the identity of historic tourist sites are permeated with flaws. These flaws are unravelled by drawing on Bourdieu s and Foucault s concepts on the cultural formation and historically specific nature of meaning and ideas. These concepts highlight architectural identity as a historically specific entity that exists only within the given discursive context and experienced socio-cultural environment from which it is formed and rationally understood. As such, these ideas dislodge the basis of conventional heritage-tourism practices which seek to preserve the historical significance of architecture, and highlight how current depictions of historic sites are actually present constructs reflecting present ideas about the past, rather than the reality of a building s prior identity. Additionally, this also draws attention to the problematic nature of current projections of identity by the heritage-tourism industry, as they often cast the misleading impression that the condition of architecture within the past is accessible and retained within the present. This indicates that further studies into the cultural, perceptual and historical aspects surrounding the formation of architectural meaning and value is necessary within the field of architecture and heritage, in order to obtain a more critical understanding of the identity of built forms. Notes 1 UNESCO World Heritage Council, The List: The Criteria for Selection, UNESCO, 2010, viewed on 5 January 2011, < ICOMOS, International Cultural Tourism Charter, managing tourism at places of heritage significance (1999), in International Charters for Conservation and Restoration,

9 Jennifer Tran Euromed Heritage, 2010, viewed on 5 January 2011, < ICOMOS, International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites (the Venice Charter 1964), in International Charters for Conservation and Restoration, Euromed Heritage, 2010, viewed on 5 January 2011, < 2 ICOMOS, ICOMOS Charter - principles for the analysis, conservation and structural restoration of architectural heritage 2003, in International Charters for Conservation and Restoration, Euromed Heritage, 2010, viewed on 5 January 2011, < ICOMOS, International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites (the Venice Charter 1964), pp. 2-4; P Marquis Kyle & M Walker, The Illustrated Burra Charter, A good practice for heritage places, Australia ICOMOS Inc, Burwood, 2004, pp , 16, 20-23,42, 60-63, R. McK Campbell & I.H. van Bremen, Tranby House, Peninsula Farm, Maylands, Conservation Report, R. Campbell : I. van Bremen, Perth, 1992, pp. 1, 12; Heritage Council of WA, Register of Heritage Places Assessment Documentation, Tranby House (1995), The Government of Western Australia, 2011, pp. 4, 6, viewed on 10 January 2011, < D/Tranby%20House%20(P-AD).PDF>. 4 Heritage Council of WA, p ibid., p ibid., p Personal visit, 2011; The National Trust of Australia (W.A.), Visitors Guide, Tranby Peninsula Farm 1839, The National Trust of Australia, Perth, 2011, p. 2; Heritage Council of WA, p Personal visit, 2011; The National Trust of Australia (W.A.), op. cit., pp ibid. 10 P Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1977, pp ; P Bourdieu, Habitus, in Habitus: A sense of place, J Hillier & E Rooksby (eds), Ashgate Publishing Limited, Burlington, 2002, pp M Foucault, The Order of Things: An archaeology of the human sciences, Pantheon Books, New York, 1970, p. xv. 12 M Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, Routledge Classics, New York, 2009, pp ; Foucault, The Order of Things: An archaeology of the human sciences; S Mills, Discourse, Routledge, New York, 2004, pp ; G Kendall & G Wickham, Using Foucault s Methods, Sage Publications, London, 1999, pp

10 10 Disfigured Past: Unmasking the meaning and identity of historic architecture 13 Campbell & Bremen, op. cit., p. 1; Heritage Council of WA, op. cit., pp Personal visit, Bibliography Bourdieu, P., Habitus, in J. Hillier & E. Rooksby (eds), Habitus: A Sense of Place, Ashgate Publishing Limited, Burlington, 2002, pp Bourdieu, P., Outline of a Theory and Practice. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Bourdieu, P., The Field of Cultural Production. Polity Press, Cambridge, Campbell, R. McK., & I.H. van Bremen, Tranby House, Peninsula Farm, Maylands, Conservation Report. R. Campbell : I. van Bremen, Perth, Foucault, M., The Archaeology of Knowledge. Routledge Classics, New York, Foucault, M., The Order of Things: An archaeology of the human sciences. Pantheon Books, New York, Heritage Council of WA, Register of Heritage Places Assessment Documentation, Tranby House (1995). The Government of Western Australia, 2011, viewed on 10 January 2011, < D/Tranby%20House%20(P-AD).PDF>. ICOMOS, ICOMOS Charter - principles for the analysis, conservation and structural restoration of architectural heritage 2003, in International Charters for Conservation and Restoration, Euromed Heritage, 2010, viewed on 5 January 2011, < ICOMOS, The role of ICOMOS in the World Heritage Convention, Euromed Heritage, 2009, viewed on 20 January 2011, <

11 Jennifer Tran ICOMOS, International Charters for Conservation and Restoration, Euromed Heritage, 2010, viewed on 5 January 2011, < ICOMOS, International Cultural Tourism Charter, managing tourism at places of heritage significance (1999), in International Charters for Conservation and Restoration, Euromed Heritage, 2010, viewed on 5 January 2011, < ICOMOS, International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites (the Venice Charter 1964), in International Charters for Conservation and Restoration, Euromed Heritage, 2010, viewed on 5 January 2011, < Kendall, G., & G. Wickham., Using Foucault s Methods. Sage Publications, London, Marquis Kyle, P., & M Walker, The Illustrated Burra Charter, A good practice for heritage places. Australia ICOMOS Inc, Burwood, Mills, S., Discourse. Routledge, New York, The National Trust of Australia (W.A.), Visitors Guide, Tranby Peninsula Farm The National Trust of Australia (W.A.), Perth, UNESCO World Heritage Council. The List: The Criteria for Selection, UNESCO, 2010, viewed on 5 January 2011, < Williamson, A.J, Tranby House, Maylands Peninsula, Western Australia. The National Trust of Australia (W.A), Perth, Jennifer Tran is a postgraduate studying at Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia. Her current doctoral research focuses on areas of architectural theory and history, and explores the dynamic nature of built forms as transformative states of becoming. 11