The modern battle horse: [re]existences, debates and possibilities regarding hotel internacional Reis Magos

Abstract

This article is an exercise of memory and resistance, with an undeniable sense of quasi-journalism. Through memory, it registers the storyline and the details of the arguments and complaints about the intended demolition of Hotel Internacional Reis Magos, since late 2013. Through resistance, it works as a register of mistakes and successes, limits and possibilities created when constructing a debate about architectural, urbanistic and (in particular) heritage-related questions. As one of the background questions, it enlightens the difficult recognition of modern architecture as heritage, whose possibilities for restoration, preservation and reutilization are often not even considered. It is important to stress that this difficulty comes out even among fellow architects and urbanists, engineers and artists. It seems that the heritage question, in spite of countless advances in conceptual experiences and the accumulation of theoretical and projectual formulations, cannot escape, at least at the public sphere, from the idea of listing. Along with this idea, fear and resistance from complete “freezing” contribute to stir up the disputes. Which alternatives are there to surpass this dichotomy? Is it possible to build a new discourse towards an idea of listing that makes it possible to include contemporary interventions?