C O N T E X T 1 7 4 : D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 5 ‘WE ARE PROUD to be making a contribution to English Heritage that will benefit both local communities and tourists so they can enjoy England’s rich cultural history, including hidden gems in some of the less-visited rural areas and countryside.’ Amanda Cupples of Airbnb announcing its £1.25 million donation to English Heritage to support heritage tourism, and the conservation of historical attractions and houses.The donation follows the launch of Airbnb’s new historical homes category, which includes listings for historic places in which to stay. ‘AIRBNB’S donation seems to serve one purpose – it is a sort of cultural greenwashing for what has become an investment platform taking homes out of residential use and worsening our housing crisis. ‘Airbnb clearly has a strategic understanding of their own vulnerabilities and in my view are making corporate donations to offset the poor publicity they are now receiving countrywide due to short lets impacting on longstanding local communities in city, coast and countryside alike.’ Will McMahon, director of the charity Action on Empty Homes ‘IN 1983, the year Battersea Power Station was decommissioned, the radical architect Cedric Price drew up a provocative proposal for what to do with the gargantuan brick hulk. The London building’s silhouette of four slender white chimneys rising from the stepped art deco brick rooftop was the real icon on the skyline, he reasoned, so why not just save that and do away with the rest? He christened his surrealist proposition the Bat Hat and sketched out how it could all be held aloft on great steel supports, freeing the land below for housing… ‘His proposal was intended as a playful dig at the conservation movement. But visit the site today, and it seems like an eerily accurate prediction. Approach the area from most directions and all you see is the chimneys – if you’re lucky. The developers of the 42-acre site have achieved the miraculous feat of hiding one of the biggest buildings in London, almost completely surrounding the great brick cathedral of electricity with bloated blocks of luxury flats.’ OliverWainwright writing in the Guardian ‘I KEEP seeing “retrofit” used to mean the reuse or adaptive reuse of buildings, but these are different things. A retrofit project should include measures to improve a building’s environmental performance. Simply retaining a building isn’t that.’ George Morgan on Twitter @ GeorgeMorgan13 ‘LISTENING to the views of the local community, and having considered the viability of moving South Norwood Library to the Pump House, we are pleased to begin preparations to keep the library in its current brutalist home.’ Jason Perry, Mayor of Croydon, announcing that, as moving the library was no longer viable, the library building has been saved after years of public campaigns against its demolition. ‘IT SEEMS bizarre that it is suddenly necessary for reasonable people, who probably only joined the National Trust because they like carrot cake and a firm hanging buttress, to make sure they vote in the organisation’s AGM to prevent fun days out in historic locations becoming weaponised as yet another front in the far right’s culture war against everything nice. But we are where we are.’ The comedian Stewart Lee writing in the Guardian ‘WITH ITS Portland stone-clad exterior, semi-circular windows and barrel-vaulted canopy, the library references both rationalist and neoPalladian architecture. Indeed, it’s believed to have occasioned the first use of the term “postmodern” by Pevsner. ‘It would be a great shame to see a fine public facility that’s served its community for 50 years needlessly demolished.’ The Twentieth Century Society objecting to the proposed demolition of architect Frederick Gibberd’s 1960s library in Nuneaton. ‘THE FIRE at Clandon stripped most of the house completely bare, leaving only fragments of decoration. This makes restoration of the interior spaces extremely challenging. ‘It would be less a case of restoration than of complete modern replication and we have concluded this wouldn’t be the right approach.’ Sophie Chessum of the National Trust explaining that Clandon Park in Surrey, gutted by fire in 2015, will be conserved largely in its fire-damaged state, contrary to previous plans. The west wing of Clandon Park before the fire (Photo: John Wilder)
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