The city of Görlitz in the Lausatia region of Germany is famous for it’s architectural heritage. The Holy Grave, also referred to as Görtlitz Jerusalem, is an artificial landscape with several buildings designed to reference Christian holy sites in Jerusalem in today’s Israel and Palestine. The park and buildings reference not only sites but also stories from the bible. This wall in the picture was built with an artificial crack to reference a story of an earthquake during Jesus’ death. See also the caption next to the image.
But of course the crack in the wall not only references this particular biblical story but makes the viewer aware of the transience and temporality of the building itself and of the built environment that accompanies human existence. I would say, it is a beautiful example avant la lettre of what cultural historian Cailtin DeSilvey recently called for in heritage preservation in the Anthropocene: Curated Decay. It’s an architectural cultural heritage from the 16. Century that references it’s own temporality and transience.
The image and caption are from an article by Swiss historian Hans-Rudolf Meier: “The Cultural Heritage of the Natural Disaster: Learning Processes and Projections from the Deluge to the »Live« Disaster on TV”
Another example that struck me recently is the new Alexandria library which was rebuilt and opened to the public in 2002. The main hall of the library is designed as an ascending or descending slant – depending on how you look at it. The degree if slanting is quite dramatic when you are standing inside but is also visible from the outside. The references range from a giant oyster to a mysterious structure ascending from the ocean floor to a building inexorably sinking into the depths. In a city grappling with massive land subsidence and sea level rise, I feel this is quite a daring and provocative architectural gesture.
(please click on images for the original online source of the image)