Table Of ContentLearning from Decay
Max Ryynänen / Zoltán Somhegyi
Learning from Decay
Essays on the Aesthetics of Architectural
Dereliction and Its Consumption
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Cover image by Zoltán Somhegyi, taken in the
Parco dei Giardini della Biennale in Venice
E-ISBN 978-3-631-74511-3 (E-PDF)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-74512-0 (EPUB)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-74513-7 (MOBI)
DOI 10.3726/b13245
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Contents
Max Ryynänen and Zoltán Somhegyi
Introduction: Learning from Decay – Learning What? And What for? ........ 7
Zoltán Somhegyi
Layers of the Past: On the Potential of Ruins .................................................... 13
Zoltán Somhegyi
Glory Through Decay: Aesthetics Around Monuments
and Their Ruination .............................................................................................. 25
Zoltán Somhegyi
Shortcuts to Nostalgia?: On the Attempts of the Aestheticisation
of the Past ............................................................................................................... 43
Max Ryynänen
Cheap Thrills: On Low Architectural Decay and Its Pleasures ....................... 55
Max Ryynänen
The Most Serene Sinking Ruins: Fragments from the History
of the Aesthetics of Venice ................................................................................... 69
Max Ryynänen
Historical Cityscapes as Museums and Theme Parks ....................................... 95
Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 111
Max Ryynänen and Zoltán Somhegyi
Introduction: Learning from Decay –
Learning What? And What for?
Our constant curiosity and desire of understanding better our world and our-
selves within it leads to a never-ending learning process. Practically anything
may merit our attention and can be qualified as a possible subject of our inves-
tigation. Even the visions of decay and examples of dereliction may guide us
to invaluable discoveries by the questions that arise through the observation of
these sites and sights. This interest in the questions that ruins urge and generate
we can also read at the very beginning of Brian Dillon’s catalogue text for an
exhibition titled Ruin Lust that surveyed the centuries of fascination of artists
with ruins: “The ruins are still standing – but what do they stand for? It seems
that the harder we think about destruction and decay, the closer we stare at this
or that crumbling mass of stone or concrete or steel, and the further we explore
the very idea of ruin itself, the less the whole category holds together. (…) We ask
a great deal of ruins, and divine a lot of sense from their silence.”1 Hence ruins in
particular, just like the reasons and results of dereliction in general, have always
been a question, and every period had its own approach towards answering it.
Or, we could also say that each era felt the need to learn from decay, which also
means finding the exact way of asking the relevant question of which answer lies
in the novel reading of the ruin – this is why ruins could serve as documents
of the (antique) past, decorative background elements, fake constructions to
evoke melancholic and nostalgic feelings, reminders of transience, warning
signs of a perhaps inevitable future decay, monumental remnants of recent
conflicts or natural catastrophes, symbols of the overtly self-assured human
hubris, etc. This curiosity in the examination of still-standing remnants of the
past has been inspiring in all ages, encouraging, inducing and appealing those
interested in both our past and in our present culture to investigate the quali-
ties that survived through the decay. All this also explains the recent increase in
ruin-analyses: among which we can mention a series of thematic books, schol-
arly conferences, photo exhibitions and dedicated websites and blogs; more-
over, numerous academic journals have published thematic issues scrutinising a
broad range of aspects and approaches to the reading of ruins.
1 Brian Dillon, Ruin Lust (London: Tate Publishing, 2014), 5.
8 Ryynänen and Somhegyi
The reason why the title – and the main guiding concept – of our book
Learning from Decay might sound strange at first is that traditionally we had been
instructed to learn from something refined, in perfect shape that can serve us as
an intact model, a unique and exemplary ideal. Something to learn from, i.e. a
specimen to be imitated, followed, discussed and analysed, is usually something
impressively completed, fully functioning and exceptionally exemplary – and,
in fact, these factors and features might seem to be a great deal in contradiction
with the essence of the phenomena of decay and ruination. Ruinous buildings,
cities and sites lack not only the integrity, but also the everyday life, function,
functioning and functionality; these places are facing Nature’s ever-continuing
destructing force. They are destined to be left forgotten, or sometimes to be cov-
ered, disguised or cleaned up. Decay can be embarrassing, and the ruin, i.e. its
striking visual manifestation, is often denied or transformed. We are lucky in
those cases when it is understood by later civilisations and cultures that not just
the ruined edifice itself as an archaeological example, but also the reasons of its
very decay are considered to be worth learning from.
The essays in the book are both “aesthetic” and “provocative” at the same time.
On the one hand, aesthetic in the sense that they deal with questions related
to the field of aesthetics, and also to the aesthetics of certain places, spaces,
artworks, contemporary tendencies, issues in the art world and in our everyday
life and even to questions of perception and sensing, emotions and feelings – all
these might be connected to the inspiring, what’s more: fascinating phenom-
enon of decay. On the other hand, our chapters might also seem provocative for
some readers, especially when writing on such recent and contemporary phe-
nomena that still today appears less often in aesthetic analyses and discourse
connected to such “classical” topics as ruins and decay. Nevertheless, we hope
that this “provocation” can remain in the positive and constructive sense of the
word, hence provoking, inviting and inspiring further considerations on the very
phenomenon of decay and its multiple appearance.
The title of this collection of essays obviously refers to the 1972 book of Robert
Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour Learning from Las Vegas, one of
the earliest books to embody a bold post-modern spirit – which by now, despite
all of its revolutionary novelty, has become a canonised classical reference. Just
like Venturi-Brown-Izenour suggested that there is still something we could learn
from Las Vegas, or at least consider the “cheap” and (seemingly) invaluable forms
of popular architecture, the present authors of the following essays assume that
ruination, decay as well as not-yet-entirely-ruined, though seriously cracking
parts of old cities are just as inspiring and significant as the breath-taking ultra-
modern high-rise constructions of the contemporary “starchitects”. What’s more,
