On Conservation

Having spent much of my working life trying to reconcile the triangle of innovation, traditional craftsmanship and conservation (and trying to make a living within the constraints) it's been clear to me that there are many idiotic aspects to 'Conservation'.

There is an assumption that craftsmanship died sometime in the past. So timber-frame buildings in the custody of such as English Heritage are ugly patchworks of old and new, as if they had never been repaired before EH came along. It seems to me that a piece of oak patched in by a craftsman today is no different to one patched in in, say 1880. So why not blend it and stain it (traditional materials, of course) as any craftsman would do. Craftsmanship is still very much alive if you look for it, and should be celebrated. Personally, as a craftsman working in oak, I would be offended if I were required to leave such unsightly blotches behind for future generations to scoff at.

It's the same with windows. I have spent a working lifetime developing technically efficient and architecturally sympathetic glazing to bring old housing stock into the twenty-first Century while preserving the visual aspect, and find the assumption by many Conservation Officers that the inhabitants of our green and pleasant land are expected to live in museums - expensive ones at that - quite offensive.

Certainly there is a place for true "conservation". In the 1960s I saw the old timber-framed and jettied 14thC Silhill Hall pulled over and burned (by an idiot contractor who could have dismantled it and sold it for re-erection on a new site if he'd had any brains) to make room for three detached modern boxes. On the other hand, once the fire-officer had won the battle over fire-doors in a private Cotswold hotel I was working on, why was the CO insisting on choosing the style of doors? There was nothing left to conserve, and I was astonished the owner didn't tell her to get lost. It's as if the rest of us have no good taste and historical perspective of our own.

No one would suggest that a beautiful crown-glazed window in the Crescents of Bath or Tunbridge Wells should be torn out and thrown away, but there are millions of windows in less sensitive areas where substituting modern, technically superior versions - virtually indistingishable from the originals - shouldn't be used to upgrade what is substandard accomodation by the standards of today. I would like to think that in 100 years time, others will look at my work and approve. Who knows, it might even get listed.

There's a new thread on the subject started on Philip Rougier's site. Why not join in the fun.
Here's the link: http://forum.expertexpert.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=55