Context 164 - May 2020

C O N T E X T 1 6 4 : M A Y 2 0 2 0 5 ‘THE BATTLE to look green is being fought more vigorously than the battle to be green. The same conservation officer clutching a KeepCup and insisting on paper straws for their Bloody Mary over bottomless brunch on Sunday will, on Monday, demand carbon-heavy brick cladding and more car-parking spaces. ‘The real tragedy of greenwashing is that we’ve internalised its logic to the point that corporations no longer need to encourage us to make meaningless gestures that lull us into thinking we’ve done our bit – we’re doing it all by ourselves. ‘When immobile wind turbines and fake rammed earth are part of elaborate games of eco- architectural trickery, something has gone seriously wrong. The complexity of climate change is enabling greenwashers to sneak through destructive practices dressed as climate activism.’ Phineas Harper writing in the Architectural Review ‘IT IS NOT what you’ve got, it is what you do with it. Pretty much any building can be re-used…Work with the structure rather than fight it; don’t try to squeeze too much in; be generous with space – that’s the cost trade-off for not having to pay for a new structure. Leave as much of the building exposed and raw, it adds character and saves money. And know when to stop changing things, less is more. Differentiate between the new and the old with bold new interventions. ‘A big joy for me is that retrofits often don’t have to apply the same tedious, multitude of regs, which means you can essentially do things that are not compromised, visually striking and fun that you otherwise wouldn’t get away with. ‘What skills are we looking for when we employ an architect on a retrofit job? We always back individuals, never a practice. We find great people and crap people at big and little practices. When we see something we like we ask who did it, not which practice but which individuals.’ An architect from ShedKM interviewed in the Architects’ Journal about its Littlewoods Bunker scheme in Liverpool. ‘RECYCLING plastic bottles is a normal part of our daily lives, but reusing our existing historic buildings would be a much more powerful way to improve our environmental impact. Despite this, reusable buildings are demolished every year and new buildings, which require a huge amount of carbon to build, replace them.’ DuncanWilson of Historic England’s publishing Heritage Counts ‘IT IS extraordinary that this vast planning application running to hundreds of thousands of words is deemed inadequate on the main issue – the demolition of a highly prized listed building.’ Marcus Binney of SAVE on Historic England’s determination that the proposed demolition of Richmond House onWhitehall for a temporary House of Commons Chamber would constitute substantial harm to a Grade II* listed building. ‘DEMOLITION or partial demolition was considered, but not by us.When we pitched for the project, the brief was to demolish all the old railway buildings and replace them with a straight connection to Piccadilly station – light, bright and brand, spanking new. ‘It was easy to understand why. The depot had been abandoned for decades and had become widely associated with degradation, drugs and prostitution. But we dug our heels in. The depot is not just any old building. It has a history dating back to 1910, was a functioning station until the early 60s and used by the Royal Mail as a distribution hub for nearly 18 years.You can’t buy that wealth of heritage. ‘We were the only bidder for the project that recommended retaining the building and, happily, our partners bought into our vision. The depot is an amazing space. People walk in and go ‘Wow’. It costs a lot of money to make a ‘Wow’. But we had it right there, already – you just had to be able to see it.’ An architect from Studio EgretWest interviewed in the Architects’ Journal about its Mayfield Depot scheme in Manchester. The suffragette Emmeline Pankhust seen helping out in Manchester, where she was born. The statue is by Hazel Reeves.