The Architectural Palimpsest: Reflections on the methodology and procedures in the development of the project for Koltur Visitors Center.

The Venice Charter formulated by the organization ICOMOS in 1964 codified internationally accepted standards of conservation practice with precise working principles of conservation based on data, authenticity and historical context. Venice’s charter is an international framework for the preservation and restoration of historic buildings and it remains the most influential international conservation document that stresses that conservation and transformation should be based on scientific data and techniques and not on guesswork. That every added element in a transformation must bear the mark of its time and thus stand out from the historic building as a reversible addition, is another basic thesis which has guided almost all transformation works for several decades, but which today is challenged through a number of leading practices. For the architecture of transformation and restoration, its theories and methods has moved away from an understanding of the work as an absolute, from which nothing can be added to or subtracted without weakening the work, towards a more heterogeneous, continuous and selectively composed understanding of the work where the existing and the added – the histroic and the contemporary - interact in a more complex and reciprocal way. Traces, memory, identity and atmosphere are key concepts in projects that strive for balances, contexts, meaning and duration. Some begin something that others continue and others continue something that someone has begun, to quote Viollet-le-Duc. A relevant concept that can shed light on the new mindsets behind prominent transformation projects is the notion of the building or city as a palimpsest. A palimpsest is a manuscript, parchment scroll, or book of words or phrases that have been scraped or erased to make room for new additions with new points or meanings. The word comes through Latin from palin meaning again and psên meaning scrape. The new whole that emerges in the palm stone layered, with sideby-side narratives about different statements, and it emphasizes that the finished work must be experienced as a consistently coherent aesthetic statement in its own right. In this understanding the cultural heritage informs the contemporary architecture that in turn informs understanding of the cultural heritage in continuous interacting movements. On the island of Koltur in the Faroe Islands, I have for the past two years worked for the Faroese National Museum Tjodsavid to develop a project for a small exhibition building focused on the island’s natural and cultural history and a adjacent building complex of houses with study and accomodation for scientist and visitors. The Faroe Islands want to ensure that the increasing tourism on Koltur does not destroy the unique natural and cultural-historical values, and we have therefore developed a comprehensive plan with proposals for infrastructure, restoration of some buildings and construction of buildings with exibitions, research fascilities and accommodation facilities for all visitors to the island. With the project, we aim to provide a contemporary example of how the unique building heritage can be challenged through a contemporary and sustainable interpretation. Studies in Faroese building culture and construction methods form the basis for our contemporary proposal that rethinks the spatial and tectonic cultures in the Faroe Islands. Stone and peat and CNC-cut joints of timber are the materials we use. The building culture of the Faroe Islands is investigated and developed, not because it is old, but because it is fine, clever and in beautiful balance with the landscape and the resources of nature. 2 3 The Architectural Palimpsest thus deals with the aesthetic, technical and significant dimensions that the architectural work Koltur Visitors centre unfolds. It reflects on how the work’s idea relates to the work’s effects. How is the relationship between premise, condition and form? How has the work’s specific design developed under the impression of external and internal relations, including in particular the building tradition, scarse ressources and dramatic climate? What has mattered and why? How is the work’s relation to existing formations of meaning in architecture and how does the work relate to the role models and related works that have been consciously or unconsciously used as a basis? The Architectural Palimpsest contains text that recognizes international standards for research, reflecting on the above questions, 3D renders and two models. Koltur existing landscape Koltur existing landscape with Visitors Centre 4 Koltur existing Lonin ruin Koltur existing Lonin ruin transformed into museum Koltur Visitors Centre