Restoration / Architecture · Design and Construction
Services · Antakya · Hatay
Restitution
Restitution is not guesswork about a building’s original state but its evidence-based reconstruction on paper. Archival documents, building traces, period comparison and oral history are brought together to establish how the building stood in a given period.
What is restitution?
A restitution project redraws, on the basis of documents, an original condition of a building that has not survived to the present. Later additions are separated out, lost elements are put back together with their evidence, and the state of the building in a chosen period is established.
The critical distinction is this: restitution is not imagination. Every element drawn must have a basis — a trace found on site, an archival photograph, an old cadastral sheet, a comparable example in neighbouring buildings, or a written source.
This is why restitution sheets carry a reliability legend. Which information rests directly on a document, which is inferred from similar buildings and which is an assumption is shown separately on the drawing itself. The board also assesses the project through this distinction.
Where does the evidence come from?
In the parcels we work on in Antakya, one of the strongest sources is the 1929 Ville d’Antioche French cadastral sheets. These show parcel boundaries, building footprints and courtyard layouts as they stood before the earthquake.
The second source is the building’s own traces: foundation walls, floor levels, blocked-up openings, joist sockets in the walls, courtyard paving. The third is the photographic archive and any earlier surveys — for some parcels, surveys drawn in 1987 reached us.
The fourth, and the one most often underestimated, is oral history. Interviews with former tenants and owners reveal when the last repairs were made, which wall was built later and how the rooms were used. This information exists in no archive.
How many periods are drawn?
A building does not carry a single “original state”. Most Antakya houses hold Ottoman and French Mandate period characteristics together, and have received later additions on top. Where the documents allow, more than one period is drawn separately so that the differences between them can be read.
Which period is taken as the basis directly determines the restoration decisions. That choice is not arbitrary: the building’s most significant and best-documented period, conservation principles and the board’s opinion are weighed together.
When does a restitution stay on paper?
A restitution realised in built form is a reconstruction — and that step is not automatic. If sufficient information cannot be obtained about the building’s exact dimensions, construction technique, details, materials and colours, the restitution must remain a drawing or a model and must not be built. This is an explicit rule of the conservation literature.
Such a restitution is not useless — quite the opposite. A restitution prepared to explain a building’s original design, to examine its historical development and to make the surviving remains more intelligible is a piece of scholarship with archival value, even if it is never built.
In urban conservation areas there is a well-known relaxation of this rule: approximate restitutions prepared from limited data are sometimes built in order to sustain the street silhouette and the integrity of the fabric. We work in the knowledge that this is an exception and not the rule, and we state separately in the report which elements rest on evidence and which on typological analogy with the period.
Not every document carries the same weight
The reliability of a restitution is limited by the quality of the documents behind it. A scaled survey and an engraving are not the same kind of evidence. An engraving, painting or watercolour carries the artist’s personal interpretation and cannot be treated as a scaled architectural drawing. A picture drawn from one viewpoint says nothing about the parts it does not show.
We therefore rank the sources: the building’s own traces and measured surveys are the strongest; period photographs are strong; cadastral and insurance maps are reliable at plan level; engravings, postcards and paintings are supporting evidence only; and analogies drawn from comparable buildings are the weakest link. Where an element rests on analogy alone, this is stated plainly on the restitution sheet and in the report.
Oral history occupies a place of its own. Former tenants, owners and neighbours know which wall was built later, when the last repair was done and how the rooms were used. This information exists in no archive, and where it coincides with the traces on the building it is a very strong confirmation.
Legal basis
Restitution work is carried out within the framework of Articles 9–13 of the Venice Charter and the Nara Document on Authenticity. The Venice Charter requires that any completion based on conjecture must stop, and that additions bear a contemporary stamp; the Nara Document holds that authenticity is to be sought not only in form but also in material, workmanship, use and setting.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a restitution project?
Restitution is not guesswork about a building’s original state but its evidence-based reconstruction on paper. Archival documents, building traces, period comparison and oral history are brought together to establish how the building stood in a given period.
What is the difference between restitution and reconstruction?
Restitution stays on paper: it draws the original state of the building on documentary evidence. Reconstruction is building: it rebuilds the configuration established by the restitution, together with current structural safety requirements. Reconstruction always follows restitution.
Can a restitution be made if no photographs survive?
It can, but its limits are stated openly. Where photographs are missing, cadastral sheets, building traces, comparable buildings on neighbouring parcels and period typology are used. Sections whose evidence remains weak are marked separately in the reliability legend; no undocumented element is drawn as if it were certain.
Who approves a restitution project?
The Regional Board for the Conservation of Cultural Property. For our projects in Hatay the approving authority is the Hatay Regional Board for the Conservation of Cultural Property. The board assesses the restitution on its level of evidence and may request further research.
Is saying “unknown” in a restitution a failure?
No — the opposite is true. A restitution built on unfounded assumption and analogy is bound to be wrong, and that error then corrupts every restoration and reconstruction decision founded upon it. Marking the unknown as unknown is not a weakness of the restitution but its discipline.
If several periods are drawn, which one is built?
That is a conservation decision, taken together with the Regional Conservation Board. The periods are drawn separately and labelled “restitution of period 1, period 2”, or by date where known — for example “condition around 1900”. Which period is taken as the basis is settled by weighing the strength of the evidence, the building’s role within the conservation area, and the historical and artistic value of the later additions in their own right. Later additions are not erased merely in order to “return to the original”.
Source
The principal reference for the theoretical framework and technical definitions on this page is Zeynep Ahunbay, Tarihi Çevre Koruma ve Restorasyon (Historic Environment Conservation and Restoration), YEM Yayın, Istanbul 2009. The principles also rest on the Venice Charter (1964) and Turkish Law No. 2863 on the Conservation of Cultural and Natural Property. The fieldwork and the assessments concerning Antakya are our own.