MEDIEVALISM IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE AS AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT

Abstract

There is a peculiar branch of contemporary architecture that tries to [re]construct the past using medieval methods and techniques. However, this is not just a formal or stylistic singularity, these architectural productions are self-proclaimed as archaeological experiments. The experimental archeology consists of an attempt to reproduce artifacts, using the same resources that social groups originally had. The symbolic experience support to conjecture possible explanatory models about the process of making these artifacts, in this case, the architecture itself. Guédelon in France, Burgbau Friesach in Austria and Campus Galli in Germany, are not only monumental examples of this happy communion between architecture and archeology, but also represent an important materiality of contemporary medievalism.