Imperfections and Scars: The Aesthetics of Curated Decay in Urban Conservation

This paper explores the value of imperfections and curated decay in the conservation of architecture and public art as vehicles of cultural memory. While conventional heritage practice treats physical degradation as a threat, newer conservation ethics argue for embracing material impermanence within an aesthetics of care. We examine how acknowledging patina, weathering, and even structural decline can become an act of care, maintaining the “spirit” and authenticity of a place. The theoretical framework integrated the aesthetics of imperfection, including concepts like the Japanese wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in the incomplete and impermanent, critical heritage theory (which questions whose memories and values are preserved or excluded) and cultural memory studies (notably Nora’s notion of lieux de mémoire, where material sites become symbolic elements of communal memory). Methodologically, the article is grounded by two case-study video essays, Imperfections (Genoa) and Scars (Nicosia), as instruments of research, which provide visual analyses of decayed architectural environments. These examples illustrate how curated decay can transform abandoned buildings and war-scarred urban zones into powerful mnemonic devices, provoking reflection on history, identity and the ethics of preservation. Despite extensive theorisation of patina/age-value and curated decay, recent heritage debates offer limited operational criteria for distinguishing intentional curated decay from unmanaged neglect in lived urban conservation contexts. Drawing on ethics and aesthetics of care, this article asks if and how care can be operationalised into a decision framework for urban conservation and tests this framework through two selected buildings: Albergo dei Poveri (Genoa) and Home for Cooperation (Nicosia). The authors argue that caring for heritage does not always mean restoring it to an as-new state; curating ageing and traces of time can support remembrance, resilience, and reconciliation, enriching heritage’s role in future urban imaginaries.