Contemporary Architecture in the Historic Environment: Recent International Perspectives

Abstract

The Getty Conservation Institute's Contemporary Architecture in the Historic Environment (CAHE) project is developing methodologies and criteria for designing new buildings that are respectful of their historic contexts and assessing their impacts. As a first step in the project, in 2015 the Getty Conservation Institute published Contemporary Architecture in the Historic Environment: An Annotated Bibliography, which identifies a wide range of views within the international conservation, architecture planning, and development communities on what constitutes appropriate new development within an historic area and the existing methodologies and tools already in use to guide and assess such developments. This paper summarizes the results of that bibliographic research, identifying the key texts and tools, common themes in those texts, issues and questions that have seemingly been resolved, and other issues that require further attention. In doing so, this paper provides an overview of how the compatibility of contemporary buildings in historic environments has been addressed in both the United States and abroad in the recent past and identifies future trends and work in this area.