Lecture by New York City- and Portland-based architect John Szot with a response by Jonathan Solomon.

Consider the medieval practice of re-employing the shattered pieces of ancient Roman buildings in Christian churches: what is on the surface a practical act of recycling inevitably raises interesting questions about the nature of the result. The medieval churches of Rome are enigmatic and complex due to their mismatched columns and imperfect masonry, leading some archeologists to attribute the use of pagan building components as a deliberate tactic for reinforcing the authority of the parish via nostalgia for the past. At an experiential level, the churches hover between the immaculate portrait of space and form they imply and the disheveled reality of their mixed symbolism and oblique references. In this way, these churches are similar to music genres like hip-hop that borrow samples from other music; while they can be decoded on a piecemeal basis, they are also rich compositions, cosmopolitan, and unique in their own right.

Jonathan Solomon, architect and cofounder of Preservation Futures, will serve as a respondent to the talk.

Thanks to the Society of Architectural Historians for hosting this program.

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MAS Context is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization founded in 2009 that collaborates with local, national, and international contributors to create and share work about the built environment.