“Life within Ruins. Essays on architecture restoration and reuse proposals for Piscina Mirabilis” is an incoming book, published by Save the Heritage Benefit Corporation, including essays on the topic of Architecture Restoration from worldwide researchers and the projects on the reuse of Piscina Mirabilis, to be published on 2021 with ISBN. The editorial board currently welcomes abstracts from University researchers, PhD candidates, professors and any other scholar affiliated to an institution or a cultural organization.

The notion of “reuse” can be extremely related to the concept of life, and life inside space. Martin Heidegger, in “Building, Dwelling, Thinking”, explained in a phenomenological way how the main purpose of a building is dwelling, and how a building acquires meaning through the act of dwelling. According to his statement, a building (and ruin as well) can be considered alive when someone dwells it when the space can be experienced, as the pulse of a human being is extended over the stones.

Ruins from all over the world keep telling us the stories and needs of different millennia, historical evidence to be preserved, but, at the same time, are these buildings potentially able to host new stories, contemporary tales?

An important theorist of the XX century, Cesare Brandi, explained that the restoration project is a “methodological moment of acknowledgment”, which implies an act of identification in terms of physical elements and historical purposes. Following this definition, a new intervention with the goal of bringing back life inside a ruin, operating with an approach of distinguishable layering, should belong to the contemporary realm of architectural language, responding to present day necessities, but it should also be felt in continuity with the historical narrative of the building.

Is it possible to bring the experiential dimension back inside ruins? August Perret stated “beautiful architecture produces a beautiful ruin”, but when does a building become a ruin? when it exhausts its function and become an evidence of a precedent step of civilization? or when it is actually abandoned?

The architecture discipline, differently from art works and technological products, which uniquely belong to their time, deals with organism belonging to different ages. It has the capacity to reinvent itself and, through the resilient act of transformation, it can become something new, but still being representative of its original idea.

ContributionsThere are two options for contributors:

Option 1: Academic Essay

The title of the book will be “Life inside space”. We invite University researchers, PhD candidates, professors and any other scholar affiliated to an institution or a cultural organization to submit an article regarding this topic. We encourage submitting abstracts about general theory of architecture restoration, analysis of reuse projects or authors, archaeological or survey campaigns about roman ruins, historical essays on Piscina Mirabilis. Authors should submit an abstract of maximum 1200 characters, the form is at the end of the page. Selected authors will be invited to write a paper that will be published in the first part of the book with ISBN. The final essay-review must be minimum 10000 characters.

Option 2: Critical review of the projects to reuse Piscina Mirabilis

We’re looking for qualified researchers to review the projects on the reuse of Piscina Mirabilis and provide a critical interpretation of them, writing an essay. To be submitted for the first phase: a short motivational text and the CV in pdf format, the form is at the end of the page. Once accepted, candidates will receive the projects for the review. The final essay-review must be minimum 10000 characters. Selected authors will be invited to write a paper that will be published in the second part of the book with ISBN, together with the projects boards.

Deadline for Abstracts: By January 7th all the abstracts, or the application for the reviewers, should be sent to the board by the form below.

Acceptance of Proposals: By January 14th, the editorial board will evaluate the applications and select the authors. The number of accepted proposals might be limited. The editorial board will contact authors regarding their proposals with a review.

Paper submission: By February 28th, a first draft of the completed paper will be submitted to the Committee for review and comments.

Book release: April 2021