Planned ruins

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A number of cultures have planned for the far future, and built structures which are intended to become planned ruins.

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[edit] Albert Speer and the theory of Ruin Value

Main article: Nazi architecture

The theory of Ruin Value (Gr. Theorie vom Ruinenwert) was conceived by Hitler's architect Albert Speer. The theory was an extension of Gottfried Semper's views about using "natural" materials and the avoidance of iron girders.

Speer's memoirs reveal Hitler's thoughts about Nazi state architecture in relation to Roman imperial architecture:

"Hitler liked to say that the purpose of his building was to transmit his time and its spirit to posterity. Ultimately, all that remained to remind men of the great epochs of history was their monumental architecture, he remarked. What then remained of the emperors of the Roman Empire? What would still give evidence of them today, if not their buildings […] So, today the buildings of the Roman empire could enable Mussolini to refer to the heroic spirit of Rome when he wanted to inspire his people with the idea of a modern imperium. Our buildings must also speak to the conscience of future generations of Germans. With this argument Hitler also underscored the value of a durable kind of construction."

Hitler accordingly approved Speer's recommendation that, in order to provide a "bridge to tradition" to future generations, modern "anonymous" materials such as steel girders and ferroconcrete should be avoided in the construction of monumental party buildings, since such materials would not produce aesthetically acceptable ruins like those wherever possible. Thus the most politically significant buildings of the Reich were intended, to some extent, even after falling into ruins after thousands of years, resemble their Roman models.

Most of these planned buildings were never constructed, and even those that were, were often constructed out of cheap concrete, instead of the materials intended. Today, they mostly either lie in unromantic ruin in fields, or have been demolished.

[edit] Modern planned ruins

A more modern example of intended ruins are the planned warning signs for the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, which are intended to endure for 10,000 years, and yet still convey an enduring (if negative) impression on future generations: "Keep out. Don't dig here."

[edit] Planned ruins in fiction

Planned ruins are a common theme in science fiction, where societies are often depicted as leaving messages, or working machines, buried within ruins designed to erode over millennia.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Albert Speer and the theory of Ruin Value:

Yucca mountain warning: