Preamble
Having regard to the
International
Charter for the Conservation
and Restoration of Monuments and Sites (Venice 1966), and the
Resolutions of 5th General Assembly of ICOMOS
(Moscow 1976), the
following Charter has been adopted by Australia ICOMOS.
Definitions
Article 1
For the purpose of this Charter: |
| 1.1 | Place means site, area, building or
other work, group of buildings or other works together with pertinent contents
and surroundings. |
| 1.2 | Cultural significance means aesthetic,
historic, scientific or social value for past, present or future
generations. |
| 1.3 | Fabric means all the physical material
of the place. |
| 1.4 | Conservation means all the processes of
looking after a place so as to retain its cultural significance. It includes
maintenance and may according to circumstances include preservation,
restoration, reconstruction and adaption and will be commonly a combination of
more than one of these. |
| 1.5 | Maintenance means the continuous
protective care of the fabric, contents and setting of a place, and is to be
distinguished from repair. Repair involves restoration or
reconstruction and it should be treated accordingly. |
| 1.6 | Preservation means maintaining the
fabric of a place in its existing state and retarding
deterioration. |
| 1.7 | Restoration means returning the EXISTING
fabric of a place to a known earlier state by removing accretions or by
reassembling existing components without the introduction of new
material. |
| 1.8 | Reconstruction means returning a place
as nearly as possible to a known state and is distinguished by the
introduction of materials (new or old) into the fabric. This is not to be
confused with either recreation or conjectural reconstruction which are
outside the scope of this Charter. |
| 1.9 | Adaption means modifying a place to suit
proposed compatible uses. |
| 1.10 | Compatible use means a use which
involves no change to the culturally significant fabric, changes which are
substantially reversible, or changes which require a minimal
impact. |
Conservation principles
Article 2
The aim of conservation is to retain or recover the cultural
significance of a place and must include provision for its
security, its maintenance and its future.
Article 3
Conservation is based on a respect for the existing fabric and
should involve the least possible physical intervention. It
should not distort the evidence provided by the fabric.
Article 4
Conservation should make use of all the disciplines which can
contribute to the study and safeguarding of a place. Techniques
employed should be traditional but in some circumstances they may
be modern ones for which a firm scientific basis exists and which
have been supported by a body of experience.
Article 5
Conservation of a place should take into consideration all
aspects of its cultural significance without unwarranted emphasis
on any one at the expense of others.
Article 6
The conservation policy appropriate to a place must first be
determined by an understanding of its cultural significance and
its physical condition.
Article 7
The conservation policy will determine which uses are compatible.
Article 8
Conservation requires the maintenance of an appropriate visual
setting, e.g. form, scale, colour, texture and materials. No new
construction, demolition or modification which would adversely
affect the settings which adversely affect appreciation or
enjoyment of the place should be excluded.
Article 9
A building or work should remain in its historical location. The
moving of all or part of a building or work is unacceptable
unless this is the sole means of ensuring its survival.
Article 10
The removal of contents which form part of the cultural significance of the
place is unacceptable unless it is the sole means of ensuring their security
and preservation. Such contents must be returned should changed circumstances
make this practicable.
Conservation processes
PRESERVATION
Article 11
Preservation is appropriate where the existing state of the fabric itself
constitutes evidence of specific cultural significance, or where insufficient
evidence is available to allow other conservation processes to be carried
out.
Article 12
Preservation is limited to the protection, maintenance and where
necessary, the stabilisation of the existing fabric but without
the distortion of its cultural significance.
RESTORATION
Article 13
Restoration is appropriate only if there is sufficient evidence
of an earlier state of the fabric and only if returning the
fabric to that state recovers the cultural significance of the
place.
Article 14
Restoration should reveal anew culturally significant aspects of
the place. It is based on respect for all the physical,
documentary and other evidence and stops at the point where
conjecture begins.
Article 15
Restoration is limited to the reassembling of displaced
components or removal of accretions in accordance with Article
16.
Article 16
The contributions of all periods to the place must be respected.
If a place includes the fabric of different periods, revealing
the fabric of one period at the expense of another can only be
justified when what is removed is of slight cultural significance
and the fabric which is to be revealed is of much greater
cultural significance.
RECONSTRUCTION
Article 17
Reconstruction is appropriate where a place is incomplete through
damage or alteration and where it is necessary for its survival,
or where it recovers the cultural significance of the place as a
whole.
Article 18
Reconstruction is limited to the completion of a depleted entity
and should not constitute the majority of the fabric of a place.
Article 19
Reconstruction is limited to the reproduction of fabric, the form
of which is known from physical and/or documentary evidence. It
should be identifiable on close inspection as being new work.
ADAPTION
Article 20
Adaption is acceptable where the conservation of the place cannot
otherwise be achieved, and where the adaption does not
substantially detract from its cultural significance.
Article 21
Adaption must be limited to that which is essential to a use for
the place, determined in accordance with Articles 6 and 7.
Article 22
Fabric of cultural significance unavoidably removed in the
process of adaption must be kept safely to enable its future
reinstatement.
Conservation practice
Article 23
Work on a place must be preceded by professionally prepared
studies of the physical, documentary and other evidence, and the
existing fabric recorded before any disturbance of the place.
Article 24
Study of a place by any disturbance of the fabric or by
archaeological excavation should be undertaken where necessary to
provide data essential for decisions on the conservation of the
place and/or to secure evidence about to be lost or made
inaccessible through necessary conservation or other unavoidable
action. Investigation of a place for any other reason which
requires physical disturbance and which adds substantially to a
scientific body of knowledge may be permitted, provided that it
is consistent with the conservation policy for the place.
Article 25
A written statement of conservation policy must be professionally
prepared setting out the cultural significance, physical
condition and proposed conservation process together with
justification and supporting evidence, including photographs,
drawings and all appropriate samples.
Article 26
The organisation and individuals responsible for policy decisions
must be named and specific responsibility taken for each such
decision.
Article 27
Appropriate professional direction and supervision must be
maintained at all stages of the work and a log kept of new
evidence and additional decisions recorded as in Article 25
above.
Article 28
The records required by Articles 23, 25, 26 and 27 should be
placed in a permanent archive and made publicly available.
Article 29
The items referred to in Article 10 and Article 22 should be
professionally catalogued and protected.
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