Context 164 - May 2020

C O N T E X T 1 6 4 : M A Y 2 0 2 0 21 The war on damp is, of course, the idea that the SPAB has argued against since its foundation.The SPAB Approach of 2017 asserts that restoration is a ‘destructive process and may leave a building without the signs of age or evidence of its past interaction with people.’ Although the SPAB may not have used the term ‘curated decay’, it has always preferred sympathetic evolution to ossification. Despite a belief in protection, it has long felt that there are cases where it is best to ‘let go’. With ruins, rather than the scraped and sterilised approach practised by some agencies and ministries, it has long favoured a more naturalistic treatment. In the Lumsdale Valley in Derbyshire, where the SPAB ran a working party in 2017 with the Arkwright Society, supported by the Heritage Fund and Historic England, this approach was firmly favoured. This post-industrial landscape contain- ing scheduled ruins is also important for the picturesque qualities and ecology that disuse has brought. Even in the case of bats, which often present one of the greatest challenges for building conservationists, particularly inside churches, compromises can be found. With the SPAB’s Old House Project we have worked with the Kent Wildlife Trust to ensure the interests of bats, as well as other flora and fauna, are understood and respected. Crucial to real-world decision-making is that old buildings are rarely just ancient artefacts; more often they are structures with ongoing util- ity. A period of dereliction or dormancy is often followed by repair and re-use. In such cases decay, whether curated or uncurated, might be viewed as a phase rather than a permanent state.The building’s resurrection need not – and should not – be treated, in Desilvey’s terms, as ‘a return to a prior state’. Re-use offers the opportunity for a new chapter in a long exist- ence. Curated Decay suggests that a building has a ‘life’, and that at its end a dignified death should be allowed. A better metaphor is perhaps that of a family, where the building passes through successive generations: sometimes flourishing, sometimes in decline.At Astley Castle a fire in the 1970s caused the building to slip into a period of unmanaged decay. There was an air of despondency about the ruin. It was only after acquisition by the Landmark Trust and the competition-winning creative input of architects Witherford, Watson, Mann that fresh life was brought to the structure. Astley has since won the Stirling Prize and become the most booked of Landmark properties. In discussing her ideas Caitlin Desilvey con- cedes that ‘I’m not sure what I’m proposing is actually possible’. For the SPAB there is no doubt that curated decay is possible, and can offer a valid and sensible conservation approach. But as an idea it is not wholly new, rather a long-established minor strand within the range of options available to conservationists. Perhaps in future, where it proves to be the case that a historic place of worship has no religious function or possibility for commu- nity re-use, curated decay could prove the most fitting option. Climate change, flooding and coastal erosion may demand the same solution in other cases. However, for the majority of old buildings, the well-established approach of care and maintenance still seems entirely right for the 21st century. A dry building is useful and more energy efficient, and historic construction embodies energy. This makes maintenance not just a choice but perhaps a duty for modern con- servationists committed to a sustainable future. Matthew Slocombe is director of the SPAB Repair and re-use, with creative new design, has opened a new chapter for the Landmark Trust’s Astley Castle (Photo: Greg Storrar, Wikimedia)