> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gabriel Orgrease [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 11:21 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [BP] Ralph re: Synagogue Reconstructions
>
>
Ken, you should post this essay on your website within the section that
describes the project.
> But even in its own history within the Jewish culture the
> wooden synagogue had ceased at a point some time ago, it
> seems to me, to have any particular sacral significance as
> much as it had to a degree become a curiosity of the past to
> the Jewish community that continued to use it possibly mainly
> motivated in that it provided space for activities, of a
> vital and dynamic Jewish community, more so than for its
> sacral significance. This shifting of the sacred implications
> of a structure over time, and with changes in fundamentals of
> belief and religious practice, causes me to consider
> comparisons with the restoration of the Limelite on 6th Ave.
> from a church to a nightclub (or of the dismantling of a no
> longer used timber frame church and reconstruction into a
> residential dwelling)
Associative values shift; they become in some ways the core for
successful adaptive use projects. It is as though we are willing to
sacrifice the optimal efficiency of a building type in order to tap into
a more primal association and meaning found in a structure, even if that
meaning is lost on us and all we are doing is romanticizing the meaning;
even romanticism is meaningful to the human experience.
> Or as I was also informed, the Greek Orthodox sanctify the
> very ground of a sacred structure -- once holy always holy. I
> am also reminded of Hopi clan houses where the tradition is
> the cyclical dismantling of the structure and rebuilding of
> it, and a problem in maintaining the generational traditions
> of the craft of rebuilding the sacral structures,
> particularly when such information of craft practice is
> considered esoteric and not to be shared in any manner with
> the outside culture. I am sure there are many other
> interesting examples to draw from.
The whole authenticity vs. integrity, my great-grandfather's axe handed
down through the generations, the japanese temple gradually rebuilt over
the centuries discussion all over again.
> Besides the odd business relationships of
> Hassidim to us goyim, particularly those of us wanting to fix
> old buildings, which I actually find rather delightful and
> always enlightening, there has always appeared to me a very
> profound disregard for the built environment.
The preceding thought in tandem with this...
> If positing the reconstruction of a synagogue in
> the real world as a dynamic project does result in the
> reconstruction of a structure that at one time was a
> synagogue, then fine. There may very well be a need not to
> reconstruct a synagogue. In the end it may not be the right
> thing to do, but in my involvement I do not have much
> interest to make on my part a decision -- which I think quite
> frankly needs to be resolved and expressed, and is being
> expressed, between the Jews of Poland, and those of Poland
> who are of differing faith, and with those Jews not of Poland
> -- as much as I am interested to assist in the exploration of
> the cultural exchange. There may be a need to reconstruct the
> structure and downplay the expression of a manifestation of a
> Jewish culture that was highly sensitive and attuned to their
> architectural environment and that essentially evaporated at
> some time considerably prior to the 20^th century. In some
> respects it is if Muslims were trying to recreate an Essene
> or Gnostic cave and the Southern Baptists complaining about it.
...together suggest that you yourself are not only applying your skills
to the tools of your trade that you use to effect the preservation (or
in this case the reconstruction) of the artifact, but are in fact
yourself a tool to be used by these cultures you cannot fully fathom in
the application of their will to fill their need for physical
manifestation of associative values.
To me, it is a very humbling and at the same time awe-inspiring thought
that you can be just the right tool for the job at a given point in
space and time, you alone out of a toolbox of possible tools that
numbers the population of the planet. I am envious.
_______________________________________________________
Dan Becker, Exec. Dir. "The workman ought often to
Raleigh Historic be thinking, and the thinker
Districts Commission often to be working."
[log in to unmask] -- John Ruskin
919/807-8480
--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
|
