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THE CONSERVATION MOVEMENT: A CULT OF THE MODERN AGE1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2003

Miles Glendinning
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Abstract

In this polemical paper, I argue that, although conservation has generally presented itself as ananti-modern phenomenon, it is actually very modern indeed; the rise of the conservation movement has been a key element in the modern transformation of the built environment. The paper assesses how this situation has come about, drawing on the turn-of-century ideas of Alois Riegl, and argues that this modern concept of the monument has had a positive, creative side and a negative, even destructive side. In a concluding section, I explore the problems that conservation faces today as a result of that ‘committed’ stance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 13 , December 2003 , pp. 359 - 376
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society2003

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References

1 This paper is a substantially revised and expanded version of a lecture given at the Institute of Historic Buildings Conservation Annual School, Strathclyde University, on Friday 16 June 2000, and reproduced in the 2001 issue ofContext(the newsletter of the IHBC).