Spolia is what historians call the
ancient practice of recycling of building materials, and until recently
it was deemed rather inconvenient as it contaminates an understanding of
history as a linear progression of time. It is both constructive
(re-use) and destructive ('spoils' imply conquest, destruction and
uprooting). Yet as a way of engagement with historic artefacts, spolia
opens a new door into the creation of built form. This publication is an
inventory of the processes of spolia, a distinctive cultural practice
from the ancient times to ours, framing the necessity for the spoliation
of the American 20th century - its materials, inventions, aesthetics
and debris. The book contains appropriated and repurposed images,
drawings, and texts presented as a series of unbound plates affording
multiple ways of sorting, comparing, mixing, and reusing.
The book
consists of antecedents of ancient and contemporary spolia in the form
of images, texts and drawing, composed of an introductory Bound Volume
and a Loose Inventory, a collection of plates. Both the Volume and
Inventory address the idea of spolia through the primary lenses of Form,
Material, Type and Tech; and the contents of the Inventory are sorted,
at least initially, according to those categories. The loose plates can
be also organised chronologically, alphabetically, programmatically,
volumetrically, chromatically, etc., and, of course, sorted randomly.
The
introductory Bound Volume contains a foreword, a series of essays,
illustrated footnotes and an afterword. The essays are essentially short
'chapters' on the phenomenon of spolia in art, architecture, design
& landscape composed by the author out of short fragments provided
by prominent academics, curators and practitioners (detailed below).
This is followed by the Inventory, a collection of loose plates with
images on recto and text on verso. Recto contains photographs of
buildings & objects, drawings & diagrams, paintings
reproductions, and book spread reprints where contemporary spolia is
case studied. On each plate's verso is an accompanying
explanatory/exploratory text by the author.
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