Context 163 - March 2020

C O N T E X T 1 6 3 : M A R C H 2 0 2 0 5 ‘I HAVE always perceived a condescension within our profession towards practice that engages with existing buildings, which has always struck me as a macho hangover of modernism, a professional arrogance which prizes entirely new buildings as more valued architectural statements... ‘WhenWilliam Morris founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877, he charged his colleagues in his opening manifesto with preserving “our ancient buildings as monuments of a bygone art… that modern art cannot meddle with without destroying.”. He went on to say: “If it becomes inconvenient for its present use… raise another building rather than alter or enlarge the old one”. I couldn’t agree less. I think the relationship we can enjoy with buildings around us is an affirmative cultural connection. ‘I am so happy to support the AJ’s RetroFirst campaign. My only problem is with the name; working with buildings as part of an existing context – physical, economic, environmental, social – is about looking forward. As the reality of the climate emergency sinks in, we are all absorbing our ethical professional responsibilities to rethink the use of our resources in construction.’ The architect Biba Jones giving a lecture organised by the Victorian Society ‘THEWRECKING ball has always been the great symbol of urban progress, going hand in hand with dynamite and dust clouds as the politicians’ favourite way of showing they are getting things done. But what if we stopping knocking things down? What if every existing building had to be preserved, adapted and reused, and new buildings could only use what materials were already available? ‘We might have no choice, given the way our voracious urban consumption habits are going. In the UK, the construction industry accounts for 60 per cent of all materials used, while creating a third of all waste and generating 45 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions in the process. It is a greedy, profligate and polluting monster, gobbling up resources and spitting out the remains in intractable lumps. On our current course, we are set to triple material extraction in 30 years, and triple waste production by 2100. If we stand any chance of averting climate catastrophe, we must start with buildings – and stop conceiving them in the same way we have for centuries.’ OliverWainwright writing in the Guardian ‘IS ANYONE else here aesthetically conservative but socially liberal? Like I love old buildings and quaint villages, but I hate the sort of people who live in them.’ The writer Eleanor Morton on Twitter @eleanormorton ‘FOR AN architect there is no closer or more critical relationship than with our structural engineer. Peter [Elliot] had the sort of big, blunt engineer fingers that can prise open and repair the most delicate and fiddly mechanisms, but had also worked a farm and led roughneck offshore diving teams on the rigs... ‘He loved old buildings, and in a world where another structural engineer could examine a historic building and tell me that, despite the fact that it had been standing for hundreds of years and could, with care, last hundreds more, his calculations showed it couldn’t and shouldn’t stand up, it was a blessing and relief to manoeuvre Peter into the job. ‘He read and understood a building better than anyone I knew: saw the clues, teased-out the structural logic and understood what was in the minds of those that built it. He sought to honour their craft and integrity, in repairing and repurposing it. ‘Critically, too, Peter, like the best lovers of history and heritage, saw the present, and making new buildings in it, as part of a continuum. He took the ingenuity and integrity he saw in historic structures, and the Scandinavian modern design he so loved, and applied them to new construction. He was a joy to work with... ‘His and the practice’s work was deeply crafted, lean and pragmatic, on projects like the Festival Hub with architect Ben Tindall – where he, with true engineer’s skill and daring, converted a King Post roof truss into a Queen Post; Abbotsford House, Riddles Court, Newhailes, Old College and the Assembly Rooms with Law Dunbar- Naismith/LDN; Rosslyn Chapel, Dawyck Gateway with others; and, with me, Linlithgow Burgh Halls, Calton Hill Observatory, the Dovecot Studios, the Poetry Library, the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation and others... ‘While his death was sudden we can not say it was unexpected; and it is somehow sweet and fitting that this lover of Scotland, the outdoors and engineering should take his last breath in the clean autumn air of the Firth of Clyde, on the heavy engineering of the Campbeltown ferry, after a happy, sunny day with his beloved Jemima, visiting grand, historic houses.’ The obituary in the Scotsman by architect Malcolm Fraser of the structural engineer Peter Elliott, who has died at the age of 62.