Context 165 - August 2020

6 C O N T E X T 1 6 5 : A U G U S T 2 0 2 0 Periodically It will come as no surprise to readers that publishers of periodicals have been struggling with both content and copy deadlines in the present dramatic circumstances, and the output of heritage organisations and their printers has been no exception. Consequently the burden on my local postman has been much reduced and my column is shorter than usual. Association of Preservation Technology Bulletin The latest issue of Association of Preservation Technology Bulletin (Vol L, No 4, 2019) arrived just before the pandemic took hold in NewYork State. Every five years, APT’s technical committees are invited to guest-edit a special issue. The association’s preservation engineering technical committee organised one on preservation engineering, each article dealing with a distinctly different aspect, with the aim of expanding the range of disciplines involved in heritage management. As the range of formally protected heritage assets expands (in the UK buildings and structure dating from 1990 are now eligible), more will require conservation, and with it the need for a growing understanding of mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection and vertical circulation systems, and their interplay with the building envelope and the structural components. The significance of character- defining lighting and ventilation also can not be ignored. The contributors demonstrate how, in a comprehensive approach to heritage management, contributory functions beyond enclosure and physical support must be considered and a multidisciplinary approach is required. In the UK the merits of the special architectural interest of the building envelope might be covered by listing, while the machinery might be covered by scheduling. Christopher Tavener’s paper explores evidence of mechanical ventilation in a Connecticut forge building of 1855, suggesting that the historic character of interiors can be overlooked and potentially lost by the ill-considered removal of just a few key fixtures. In a similar way, the focus on equipment within electrical substations in MacLaren North’s paper is related to Australia’s electrical grid. North shows how the protection and conservation of a building envelope, while essential (whatever its aesthetic merits), is not in itself sufficient to explain its key wider role and significance in a complex, evolving and geographically distributed system. One example he illustrates is a form of modern utilitarian generic kiosk that typically replaces most small-scale traditionally built electricity substations. The former are cheaper to install and maintain, and they are generally on public land, but they can be banal and visually intrusive. Perhaps it hardly needs stating that electric lights and refrigeration (especially to Australians), to name but two basic technologies enabled by electrification, were as transformative as the car was to transportation in the early 20th, and as mobile telecoms and computer networks have been in the past 20 years. But these technological advances also bring with them obsolescence and replacement, so the earlier sites and their plant and fixtures are easily destroyed without reference to their heritage potential. Both these papers in the bulletin underscore how mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP) engineers can play a successful advocacy role in heritage management. In further reference to the need for a multidisciplinary approach to the recognition and evaluation of historic MEP systems and how they are integral to the architectural expression of historic buildings, Matthew Chalifoux presents several thought- provoking case studies in his paper ‘Conservation of character-defining engineered building systems’. The author concludes that over the past 20 years, as the buildings of the mid-century modern movement have come of age, the discipline of heritage management has been challenged to be a participant in Productsareavailable inourUSwarehouse info@remmers.be -www.artemundit.us Innovative cleaning techniques Exteriorpeelingusing a clay-based system Clean Galena Interiorpeelingusing a latex-based system Arte Mundit ® LouvreMuseum, Paris CarnavaletMuseum, Paris WestminsterHall (BigBen), London Rohanhotel, Paris InterContinentalhotel, Paris © T llis St. Patrick’s Cathedral,New York Cathedral of St. John theDivine,NYC New York State CapitolBuilding, Albany WestminsterHall (Houses of Parliament), London U.N.E.S.C.O., Paris Royal Palace,Brussels VOL. L NO. 4 2019 BULLETIN The Association for Preservation Technology International Association internationale pour la préservation et ses techniques T H E J O U R N A L O F P R E S E R VA T I O N T E C H N O L O G Y