The Inhabitability of Ruins: A Cultural History
by
Cătălin Pavel
Keywords
Simmel
Casa dei Crescenzi
Désert de Retz
Piranesi
Hubert Robert
In the present paper I collect some material for a cultural history of the inhabited ruin, still missing in the otherwise vast scientific literature on ruins. I argue that inhabitability needs to be acknowledged as a key characteristic of ruins, and that art historical and archaeological evidence substantiates the claim that there is no actual hiatus between the non-ruined and the ruined. Whether the rationale for dwelling in the ruins is pragmatic, symbolic, aesthetic, moral, sociopolitical or philosophical, the phenomenon needs to be mapped in detail.
I take my cue from Georg Simmel, whose bewohnte Ruine has never been analyzed in depth, and complement it with Heidegger’s insights. I then discuss specific instances of inhabitable ruins from the Casa dei Crescenzi to Piranesi and Hubert Robert. Among the case studies are Giulio Romano’s Palazzo del Te, Clérisseau’s Stanza delle Rovine, and particularly François de Monville’s residential Broken column in the Désert de Retz. Ultimately, in this brief investigation I will address why and how ruins have been, since the Trecento, construed as inhabitable by trees, by people, and by other buildings.
Chicago citation style