Ruin value
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Ruin value (Template:Lang-de) is the concept that a building be designed such that if it eventually collapsed, it would leave behind aesthetically pleasing ruins that would last far longer without any maintenance at all. The idea was pioneered by Albert Speer while planning for the 1936 Summer Olympics and published as "The Theory of Ruin Value" (Die Ruinenwerttheorie). The intention did not stretch only to the eventual collapse of the buildings, but rather assumed such buildings were inherently better designed and more imposing during their period of use.
The idea was supported by Hitler, who planned for such ruins to be a symbol of the greatness of the Third Reich, just as Greek and Roman ruins were symbolic of those civilizations.
A number of other cultures have also planned for the far future and built structures which are intended to become planned ruins.
Albert Speer and the theory of Ruin Value
The theory of Ruin Value (Gr. Ruinenwerttheorie) 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 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.
Speer expressed his views on the matter in the Four Year Plan of 1937 in his contribution Stone not Iron in which he published a photograph of the Parthenon with the subscript: "The stone buildings of antiquity demonstrate in their condition today the permanence of natural building materials." Later, after saying modern buildings rarely last more than fifty years, he continues: "The ages-old stone buildings of the Egyptians and the Romans still stand today as powerful architectural proofs of the past of great nations, buildings which are often ruins only because man's lust for destruction has made them such." Hitler approved Speer's "Law of Ruin Value" (Gr. Ruinengesetz) after Speer had shown him a sketch of the Haupttribüne as an ivy-covered ruin. The drawing pleased Hitler but scandalized his entourage.
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.
Modern planned ruins
A more modern example of intended ruins are the planned warning signs for the proposed nuclear waste repository 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."
See also
