Sum or Total? The Case of the Cistercian Monastery in Miami

Authors

  • Fabio Colonnese Sapienza University of Rome - Department of History, Drawing and Restoration of Architecture
  • Maria Grazia D'Amelio University of Rome Tor Vergata - Department of Business Engineering
  • Lorenzo Grieco University of Rome Tor Vergata - Department of Business Engineering

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2724-2463/12665

Keywords:

William Randolph Hearst, Miami Spanish Monastery, Art Collections, Moving Architecture, Creative Restoration

Abstract

As an architecture is moved, the relationship with the place it was designed for is lost. Its original functions are altered and it acquires novel meanings, concerning with not only the new context but the act of transfer itself. Its authenticity seems, on the one hand, to be guaranteed by the original materials, while, on the other hand, it is challenged by the different form and reception, which is somehow mediated by the idea of its previous, pure existence. The story of the ancient Spanish monastery purchased by William Randolph Hearst in 1925, dismantled, shipped and rebuilt in Miami, Florida decades later is here described, analysed and discussed as a sort of borderline of the idea of ‘fake’, by focusing on the historical, epistemological and symbolic value of interventions that challenge the ‘nature’ of architecture itself.

Downloads

Published

2021-09-10

How to Cite

Colonnese, F., D’Amelio, M. G., & Grieco, L. (2021). Sum or Total? The Case of the Cistercian Monastery in Miami. Img Journal, 3(4), 134–155. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2724-2463/12665

Issue

Section

Contributions