Page 51 - Beyond Decommissioning

32 Beyond Decommissioning

“opalescent” glass, and a facade lined with shining copper. Second, regret goes only
one way. There is no chance to save a historic building once it is gone. And, one can
never be sure of what will be valued in future. This highlights the importance of iden-
tifying and saving historic buildings—once a piece of history is destroyed, it is lost
forever.
A point some may regard as provocative is illustrated in the following. a critical
challenge in dealing with industrial heritage is to define what was significant long
ago and what has changed and become significant today. Example: “Well, a lot of
these places have great old bones. When you go back into the discussion on the lay-
ering of history, at the Brick Works for example, there was graffiti everywhere. After
it was closed up, it became a great place for raves, for photographers, and also for
graffiti artists. But who’s to say that’s not also a legitimate part of its history? […]
It’s an editing process of removing some things and adding some things, and there’s
a sense of respect that you have to have of what’s come before”—quoted by Sugden
(2017). This point is stressed in Fig. 2.8, an abandoned factory in Rome. Maybe it is
the graffiti that should be conserved as the first priority, and the ruins of the fabric are
only the decorative background.
The relationship between “local culture” and reconversion is discussed in Wei
Zhang (2012) through a detailed analysis of three case studies. It has been noticed that
the “local culture” has almost disappeared in some conversions. Some conversion pro-
jects show no difference, for example, between Europe and China. For example, some
of these sites used parts of the industrial buildings as sculptures, and converted the
buildings into art centers (quite a commonplace trend these days), but no consideration
was given to local elements. What attracts people is the link between the culture of the

Fig. 2.8 Rome, abandoned factory, urbex, and graffiti-art.
Art by BAR crew, Carlos Atoche and Ale Senso. Photo courtesy by Rita Restifo.