NARRATING THE LAYERS OF HISTORY: EXPLORING TEMPORAL CHANGES AND PRACTICAL REALITIES IN SCHOOL BUILDING RENOVATIONS

This contribution explores architectural renovations of selected school buildings in Amsterdam from various periods within the Modern Era, each designed by different architects. It entails a thorough investigation of interventions spanning from initial design and construction up to 2010, categorizing them by shared themes and distinctive features. The authenticity and unique attributes of each project are central, influencing the intervention strategies implemented. Emphasis is placed on employing a visual research tool to deeply understand the various interventions shaping the historical narrative. Interventions - harmonizing heritage preservation with contemporary renewal imperatives - are chronologically sequenced, forming the core of the tool. Methodologically, the research utilizes Amsterdam municipality’s digitized data on all buildings until 2010. The selection prioritizes school buildings designated as national or municipal monuments, anticipating access to comprehensive data through official publications and secondary sources. Through a detailed historical analysis, individualized historical trajectories for each building are constructed on a timeline, highlighting technological integrations while uncovering real-life scenarios and practical necessities. The timeline, more than a chronological record, becomes an intricate storyline and contextual history. ‘Breaking points’, marking significant interventions, are crucial for understanding transformative changes impacting perception, utilization, and adaptation to contemporary requirements. Integrating textual materials, action descriptions, and analyses of construction documents and technical drawings, the timeline provides a comprehensive representation of the buildings’ evolutionary journey. In conclusion, the study proposes a multi-layered, time-adjusted monitoring dashboard to track architectural renovations. The devised flexible timeline functions as a record-keeping instrument, a streamlined information tagging system, and an integrated visual overview. This chronological data registry synthesizes different information layers within a broader historical context, thus assisting the exploration, structuring, and understanding of the complex building transformations. By complementing the documentation, archiving, and analytical processes, it could potentially serve as a forecasting tool to regulate in future actions in heritage management and planning.