PRESERVING SPACE : towards a new architectural conservation agenda 032

It is argued that there is a disjunction between conservation and modern architectural theories with regards to the concept of space. The argument is developed through a case study, the Casa de Detenção do Recife, a XIX Century listed penitentiary, whose restoration demonstrates how subtle spatial changes can alter building’s properties. The paper concludes by proposing a new approach to architectural conservation, which would take space configuration as an object of conservation itself. Space as an Object of Conservation One of the major challenges facing conservation and restoration of built heritage is the need to make them socially useful, which requires, in general, its adaptation to new social and functional requirements, sometimes incompatible with its original space configuration. Adaptations include altering the network of space-to-space accessibility and visibility and/or removing and introducing partitions. However, if space is the fundamental and in dissociable architectural dimension which distinguishes it from other artistic expressions (Zevi, 1951) and gives material support to social attributes (Hillier & Hanson, 1984, Markus, 1993), then it should be considered in itself an object of conservation and restoration interest. A detailed examination of fundamental documents of restoration theory (Brandi, 2004; Boito, 2003) and international conservation charters (Cury, 2000) reveals that the conservation discourse is not provided with a concept of space. Perhaps, the lack of a theoretical reasoning about the spatial dimension of architecture within the field of conservation resides in its affiliation with classical theories, as classical theoreticians considered architecture as an art of building, understood as proportion and structure (Collins, 1998). If this is true, a paradox is established (Amorim & Loureiro, 2005; Loureiro & Amorim