Palimpsest, A Tool for Explaining the Identity of the Historic City

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

The city, the metropolis, the land, the earth, and even the smaller-scale buildings, roads, squares, neighbourhoods...; convey layers of history through their backgrounds: layers through which one can read through the images inscribed in them, hear vanished voices. Obviously, the older the place the richer the accumulation of layers.
One can recognise dichotomies of happiness and sadness, life and death, poverty and wealth, confidence and betrayal, innocence and guilt ... in each of these historical layers. Each layer witnesses the passage of time, and unveils real realms of the memories. When spaces are "blended, rebuilt, or re-moulded," traces of previous patterns remains, suggests Brian Ladd in The Ghosts of Berlin in a deserted city.
There is a labyrinthine vision of the historical layers through which anyone, such as Walter Benjamin’s "Flâneur", can explore and reread palimpsests so that historical layers begin to unfold. The territory is not a specific product; it is the result of various processes over time. What forms the state of the territory today is affected by the natural or man-made, cultural or technological factors of the past; they have left their traces on the figure, the image, the face and the profile of the land and place.
The purpose of this study is to introduce the Palimpsest approach in explaining and understanding historical cities. The research method in this article is qualitative and with content analysis to explain the city Palimpsest method and its properties based on several questions .The study of this article is a review of the city Palimpsest approach and explores the methods and results that can be used to identify historical cities and preserve their historical continuity.

Keywords

References

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  • Receive Date: 23 May 2020
  • Revise Date: 10 January 2021
  • Accept Date: 31 December 2020

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