Authenticity in Architectural Heritage Conservation

The book contributes to a recontextualization§of authenticity by investigating how this value is created, reenacted, and§assigned. Over the course of the last century, authenticity figured as the§major parameter for the evaluation of cultural heritage. It was adopted in§local and international charters and guidelines on architectural conservation§in Europe, South and East Asia. Throughout this period, the concept of authenticity was constantly§redefined and§transformed to suit new cultural contexts and local concerns. This volume§presents colonial and postcolonial discourses, opinions, and experiences in the§field of architectural heritage conservation and the use of site-specific§practices based on representative case studies presented by art historians,§architects, anthropologists, and conservationists from Germany, Nepal, India,§China, and Japan. With more than 180 illustrations and a collection of§terminologies in German, English, Sanskrit, Hindi, Nevari and Nepali, classical§Chinese and standard Mandarin, and Japanese, these cross-cultural§investigations document the processual re-configuration of the notion of§authenticity. They also show that approaches to authenticity can be specified§with key analytical categories from transcultural studies: appropriation,§transformation, and, in some cases, refusal.§