Framing Fragments

Abstract

As an object of cultural heritage, the fragment poses itself as a challenge for the preservationist imperative to the complete. The element of absence inherent in the fragment complicates the idea of heritage as representation. By framing its buildings as fragments the paper explores the architectural montage “Bungalow Germania” and its potential to question the representational power of architecture. The montage can be seen as an experimental preservationist intervention which shifts the meaning of the buildings from representations of grand ideologies into slippery ambiguous signifiers. By creating a representational void, the performative potential of the fragment in narrating architectural heritage is here foregrounded. With its privileged access to the flesh of the fragment, preservation might thus hold promise of a creative just as much as a restorative field of practice.