The Last Version of the Square

The brief called for the square to be restored to its original character. This phrase, underlined twice in the council's instructions, initially seemed to promise a rare professional luxury: a destination already agreed upon.

The oldest photograph showed a market crossed by tramlines. Residents campaigning for restoration remembered instead a fountain installed decades later, while the shopkeepers favoured the arrangement that had allowed cars to stop outside their premises. Each described the other versions as unfortunate interruptions in the square's proper life.

As architect, Lucien assembled the evidence with increasing unease. What the town called its original character was less a period than a collection of permissions: to linger, to trade, to park, to remember oneself being younger.

At the public consultation, he displayed four historical plans and asked which should govern the restoration. The discussion grew heated. Afterwards, his manager told him that the purpose of consultation was to build agreement, not demonstrate that agreement was difficult.

Lucien was tempted to withdraw into technique. Drainage and paving offered disputes that could at least be expressed in measurements. Yet choosing what the square should permit would remain a decision even if he hid it behind the specification of stone.

The next drawings described proposed uses rather than recovered identities. They included shade, market stalls, an accessible crossing and a small fountain whose design imitated none of its predecessors.

Opponents accused him of abandoning restoration. Supporters praised him for returning the square to the people. He found both descriptions too complete.

When construction finished, children gave the fountain a name absent from every plan. Lucien wrote it in his notebook, then resisted the impulse to add it to the official history as the moment the square had finally become itself.