Nara Symposium Book

Conservation as physical and conceptual gesture
The 2024 symposium celebrating the 30th anniversary of “The Nara Document of Authenticity” brought together speakers from Singapore, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines, underscoring the document’s enduring influence in the field of architectural conservation. Designed for the purpose of this event, we worked closely with architect and architectural historian, Dr. Yeo Kang Shua, to produce the publication of his essay “The Nara Document at 30: Perspectives on Replication and Reconstruction in Architectural Conservation”. Widely recognised for broadening the understanding of cultural diversity and heritage, the Nara Document built upon the 1964 Venice Charter by expanding the notion of authenticity beyond original material, emphasising instead the retention of material fabric in its original state. Now, some thirty years on, Dr. Yeo reexamines the document amid shifting contexts of dwindling resources, declining craftsmanship, and changes in function and use.

His essay poses timely and unresolved questions: How do we balance preservation with transformation? Can rebuilding or replacement be authentic? And, perhaps the most relevant to its design, is the original material form important? Such questions provoke thought but offer no definitive answers. In this spirit, we designed the book to extend them into a conceptual gesture. Using the technique of French folding, also known as wrapped-back fold, each sheet of paper is printed on one side and folded to have its accompanying imagery featured on the outside leaf. Unless one makes a conscious decision to make alterations to the book, the information and ideas inside remain inaccessible.

The book’s design intentionally encourages critical reflection upon the theme of the symposium. Readers are forced to either read the book in its intact state where only partial information is available, or to open the folds to reveal the full text. This physical provocation mirrors the central questions raised in Dr. Yeo’s essay, questioning whether the original material form is sacred, whether preservation protects or constrains, and whether intervention inevitably leads to the loss of something else in the process. These modes of engagement echo the dilemmas of conservation itself, prompting reflection on the same questions of substance, form, and context through the physical form of the book itself.