(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

The built environment embodies the values, economies, technologies, possibilities, preconceptions, needs and hopes of each period and the culture that produces it. History, in its distillation, has presented seemingly objective records of the development of the built environment, and architectural publications have cemented that reality. Within history, heritage highlights tangible and intangible aspects of a culture, “generally regarded as a shared common good by which everyone benefits.” However, the authors also recognize that “Heritage [like history] is by no means a neutral category of self-definition nor an inherently positive thing.” It is a process of selection by which aspects of culture, deemed as essential, are preserved and transmitted. Questions about who defines what is to become heritage, what is to be included in History, or which works of architecture are selected for publication and how they are to be credited also reveal the omissions and the biases perpetuated through time – in detriment of the shared common good. Dr Milka T. Bliznakov founded in 1985 the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA), a unique archive of its type, to remediate voids and gaps in the knowledge of architecture and design-related disciplines resulting from the omissions and invisibility of women. Bliznakov understood that, in the absence of proper historical credit, the original papers of women were the only records to prove their contributions and substantiate their inclusion in history. Beyond acting as proof, and beside the factual information imprinted on them, the preserved artifacts also hold a wealth of intangible information – “practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and know-how” – worth incorporating into architecture’s canons. This paper presentation reflects on current initiatives of the IAWA Center that, employing works preserved in the archive, aim to capture, materialize and digitally disseminate tangible and intangible knowledge of women’s practices; evaluating the initiatives’ levels of success, and identifying challenges in the mission to expand and balance the history of architecture.