SPAB Conference Report

New Design for Old Buildings

The SPAB approach to contemporary architecture
in historic contexts

Seminar presented by the SPAB

Tuesday 20 March 2018
St Martin in the Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 4JJ
Chaired by David Alexander, SPAB Guardian
 Contents

Seminar Aims ...................... 3

Speakers ...................... 3

New Design for Old Buildings: the SPAB Approach .................. 4-5

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Negotiating Layers of History ...................... 5

A Contemporary Approach to Contextualism ....................... 6

Garden Museum, Lambeth ................... 7-8

The Bold and the Beautiful ................... 8-9

Keynote – Progressive Conservation ............... 9-10

Panel Discussion ............. 11-12

Conclusions ................... 12

Reading ................... 13

Definitions .................... 13

The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings Cover images (top, left, right): British Museum World Conservation &
Charity no. 111 3753 Scottish charity no: SC 039244 Exhibitions Centre (Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners), House at Wapping,
Company no: 5743962 London (Chris Dyson Architects LLP), The Granary, Barking & Dagenham
(Pollard Thomas Edwards. Photo credit: Tim Crocker)
Seminar Aims

A celebration of good new design for old buildings, whether domestic, commercial or cultural; urban

or rural. The SPAB Approach is that sympathetic but imaginative new architecture can complement the

old, and is an important factor in the conservation of historic buildings as well as the sustainability of the

built environment into the future.

Exploring, though example projects:

• What constitutes ‘good’ new design in historic contexts and how it is achieved.

• The relationship between architect and client.

• Constraints and influences on the design process.

• Responses to contexts, design cues, materiality, the interaction and linkage of new and old.

Speakers

New Design for Old Buildings: the SPAB Approach

Roger Hunt & Iain Boyd – authors of New Design for Old Buildings [SPAB / RIBA 2017]

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Negotiating layers of history
Stuart Piercy – Founding Director, Piercy and Company

A Contemporary approach to contextualism

John McElgunn – Partner, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

Garden Museum, Lambeth

Alun Jones – Director, Dow Jones Architects and
Christopher Woodward - Director, Garden Museum

The Bold and the Beautiful – selected projects by Chris Dyson Architects
Chris Dyson – Chris Dyson Architects LLP

Keynote – Progressive Conservation

Liz Smith – Partner, Purcell

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New Design for Old Buildings: the SPAB
Approach
Roger Hunt & Iain Boyd – authors of New Design for Old Buildings (SPAB / RIBA 2017)

The SPAB is the Society for the Protection (not preservation) of Ancient Buildings and supports sensitive

repair that helps to keep buildings in active use. It does not believe it is possible or desirable to ‘restore’

a building i.e. return it to an arbitrary point in its history or an ideal state. Nor - contrary to some

expectations - does it favour a historicist or unthinking pastiche approach to making new interventions,

preferring good contemporary design that is not necessarily ‘quiet’ but is mannerly and responds to

present day needs in the architectural language of its time. (For example, the SPAB supported Sir Basil

Spence’s designs for a new Coventry Cathedral after the Second World War, when many advocated

instead a facsimile rebuilding of the old cathedral.)

Left: Royal William Yard, Plymouth, Gillespie Yunnie Architects and Urban Splash
Right: Martello Tower Y, Stuart Piercy. Photo credit: Edmund Sumner

Good new design is hard to define but readily recognisable. It is achieved through basing interventions
on a thorough understanding of the old building – its form, functions, materials, history and

development over time – and responding to the cues presented by its volumes, proportions, features,

materiality and context. New work might be a non-identical twin or sibling: inserted, woven or echoing

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the old. The best examples are those that respect the old building, make creative use of materials

(corresponding or contrasting), with careful detailing and high quality craftsmanship, and establish a

dialogue between old and new. It is important to remember that old buildings work differently from

new and interventions should preserve their ability to ‘breathe’ – but also that their physical qualities

can help architects meet contemporary performance standards (e.g. using thermal mass to assist in

regulating the internal environment). Conservation and new design should go hand in hand to sustain

the building, the present being only one phase in a long life of use and appreciation.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly:

Negotiating Layers of History
Stuart Piercy – Founding Director, Piercy and Company

Featured projects: Martello Tower Y, Bawdsey, Suffolk (2010) and Camden Market (current)

Stuart described the importance of retaining historic fabric and the essential character of the subject

building, and designing new interventions inspired by and responding to the old. At the Martello Tower,

the guiding philosophy had been to devise a geometry for the new (for example, the roof cap) that

was derived from the existing, in order that the two could be symbiotic. An ingenious solution using

light tubes and slots in the cills of existing openings had admitted borrowed light into the heart of the

tower, enabling residential use of a defensive structure where no new openings in the outer wall were

permitted. At Camden Market, achieving movement into and through the site, horizontally and vertically,

has guided the scheme, which develops from the site’s history and layout as a linked series of yards

and wharf buildings of differing dates, each with their own distinctive character. It aims to emulate the

utilitarian but high quality details of the historic buildings and respond to the layers of texture and patina

that have developed over time.

Stuart spoke convincingly about the value of creating physical models to aid the process, both of

designing for individual buildings and of masterplanning for complex sites, in addition to the use of BIM.

He observed that much new design in historic contexts is development-led, but that the commercial

opportunities presented by new work can enable the conservation of the old, with both making a

positive contribution. The challenge of working with, or in the context of, old buildings can present to

architects more interesting projects with more exciting outcomes than would designing a new building

on a clear site.
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A Contemporary Approach to
Contextualism
John McElgunn – Partner, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

Featured project: British Museum World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre, Bloomsbury, London

(2014)

John set out the parameters and constraints that had influenced the evolution of this project – a

physically confined site; a complex setting (including the iconic British Museum main building, the

adjacent King Edward VII Building of 1914, and historic Bloomsbury); multiple stakeholders with a variety

of views; and a challenging brief encompassing exhibition space, conservation laboratories and access

to and movement around the museum for large and fragile objects. He described preparatory work to

understand and characterise context buildings – both historic and more recent interventions in the street

scene – before deciding how the new building would mediate between the ‘brown’ brick residential

terraces and other ‘white’ Portland stone institutional buildings. He also discussed what ‘in keeping’

might mean, before outlining the deliberate decision taken in this instance not to follow the precedent

set by, for example, the use of terracotta facing for more recent buildings in the area.

John spoke eloquently both about the process of planning spaces, and about evolving a design language

for the new Centre that enabled it to sit in context and mediate or harmonise with other buildings, whilst

also having its own distinctive identity. It was important to continue the British Museum’s pattern of

development over time, with the estate growing through the addition of buildings of differing styles

in successive eras. The aim here was not to create a ‘subservient’ building (i.e. disappearing into the

background) but what John called a “respectful younger sibling”. This prompted designing a ‘white’

building whose proportions relate to the cornice height of the main Museum building, and whose grid

module is derived from the scale of the steel-framed, stone clad King Edward Building adjacent. The

steel and glass of the new - corresponding with, not copying, the old – play with light and shade; solid,

transparent and translucent. The grainy texture of the Roach bed Portland stone skin of the stair tower

contrasts with the smooth Base bed Portland stone of the Museum and by keeping the stone clear of the

ground it announces that it is a veneer rather than performing a load-bearing function.

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Garden Museum, Lambeth
Alun Jones – Director, Dow Jones Architects and

Christopher Woodward - Director, Garden Museum

Featured projects: Garden Museum, Lambeth, London (2008 & 2017)

Alun and Christopher described the two consecutive projects that had adapted the former church of

St Mary to new use as the Garden Museum. They first installed an exhibition space, providing museum-

standard display conditions, in a light touch way that required no archaeological excavation and little

intervention in the historic fabric by using a prefabricated two-storey structure of cross-laminated timber.

The church nave / exhibition space was treated as a public square with ‘buildings’ of functional space

clustered around it, setting up interesting juxtapositions of new and old, and of forms and features.

Whilst retaining much of the earlier work, the second scheme significantly expanded the exhibition

and study space and created new catering facilities to help generate income to sustain the museum

and its work – described as “an invisible reality in the scheme” – whilst respecting historic fabric and the

character of the building.

Garden Museum, Alun Jones and Christopher Woodward. Photo credit: David Grandorge

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Both speakers emphasised the contribution architecture has made in helping the museum to realise its

educational and financial objectives, and the importance of constructive dialogue with stakeholders at

the planning stage. The guiding concept for the new work was of a series of pavilions arranged around

the site and its historic features (such as the listed table tombs of John Tradescant and William Bligh);

enclosing a new cloister garden, and framing activities, views and thresholds between the museum and

its urban environment. Materials (such as the bronze cladding of the pavilions) and the manner of their

use were specified for their character, texture, colour and potential for both durability and developing

interesting patination over time. Christopher Woodward described the museum’s commitment to

remaining in the former church rather than relocating, and characterised the design process as one of

“making friends with the building again”.

The Bold and the Beautiful

Chris Dyson – Chris Dyson Architects LLP

Featured projects: The Wapping House, Wapping, London (2014); Gasworks, Lower Slaughter, Gloucs

(2014); Spitalfields house and gallery, London; The Cooperage, Clerkenwell, London (2015); The Sekforde,

Clerkenwell, London (2017)

Through a selection of projects, Chris explored the use of design approaches and materials that respond

to and resonate with old buildings and their context, but which mark out the intervention as being

new and of its own time – for example the large scale brick arches used in the domestic extension at

the Wapping House. He described working with the character and story of a site to add a new chapter,

such as the corten-clad writer’s tower at Gas Works in Gloucestershire. Here the material is a foil to and

contrast with the historic buildings, setting up interplay between the new work, the old stone-built

house and the rusted metal ancillary agricultural buildings, and reflecting the industrial character of site.

The tower form recalls a cylindrical gas holder. He emphasised the potential for delight and enjoyment

in accepting patina and marks of time as part of a building’s character, and sculpting or ‘carving’ space, for

example at The Cooperage where dramatic, varied and playful volumes were achieved, rather than filling

the height of the building with floors.

Chris encouraged clients and their architects to be bold in their aims and approaches, and robust but

constructive in their dialogue with local authorities where consents are necessary. Whilst a practice

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might develop hallmark motifs or favoured ways of working, it is always best to approach each project

afresh and take cues from the specific context and materiality of the historic building.

Keynote – Progressive Conservation

Liz Smith – Partner, Purcell

Featured projects: Natural History Museum, Oxford (2014); Kew Palace, London (2006); Sammy Ofer

Wing, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (2011); Cardigan Castle (2017); Yr Ysgwrn,

Snowdonia (2017); Clandon Park, Surrey (pending): St Ethelburga, Bishopsgate, London (2001)

Liz used her keynote address to reiterate that good new design is rooted in understanding and

appreciation, rather than in the application of a particular style; and that continual change is inevitable

in most old buildings. Architects are agents and managers of that change and should create it a careful

and well-considered way. Alongside principles of minimal intervention and reversibility, she noted the

potential of new technologies in “applying innovation to conservation”, for example the use of magnetic

LED fittings at the Natural History Museum in Oxford, which achieved improved lighting levels without

any need to drill fixings into or run cables over the historic ironwork structure. Documentary research

and physical investigation to aid understanding can also provide both evidence to justify intervening in

a particular location or way, and the basis for an appropriate design approach - for example a new timber

clad lift tower on the site of a former garderobe shaft at Kew Palace. Traditional materials and forms can

be used in a contemporary manner, and new can relate to old through rhythm, proportions, layering

and juxtaposition. Some schemes may contain elements of repair, re-creation – even restoration, as the

context and needs indicate.

Liz reminded delegates of the continued relevance of past RIBA President Sir Alexander John Gordon’s ‘3

Ls’: that for good architecture to be relevant over time, it must be designed to be long life, loose fit and

low energy. She also stressed the importance of collaborating with other skilled professionals in a project

team (the quantity surveyor, engineer, craftspeople and conservators) and allowing time for analysis,

reflection and stakeholder engagement – though noted that it is sometimes difficult to reconcile a

reflective and iterative approach with the RIBA stages of work plan, which requires design work to start in

Stage 2. The recently published conservation guide to accompany the plan takes more account of such

an approach to historic buildings. Liz concluded by anticipating the outcomes of the creative approach

being taken by the National Trust to its fire damaged country house, Clandon Park, and reference to
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the Japanese art of kintsugi, which treats damage and repair as part of an artefact’s history and reveals

beauty through visible repairs skilfully executed. She echoed the words of nineteenth century writer

and thinker John Ruskin: “Our duty is to preserve what the past has had to say for itself, and to say for

ourselves what shall be true for the future”.

Kew Palace, Purcell

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Panel Discussion

Do we need a new ‘R-word’? ‘Restoration’ is used generically and can be a semantic trap.

Renewal can be helpful, where buildings enter a new phrase of life through adaptive reuse. Renovation

lies closer to repair in meaning, and is perhaps more widely understood. Recuperation – not specifically

an architectural term – indicates both a capacity for something new to happen, and the sense of healing.

Delegates noted the term ‘sibling’ had been often used of new additions to old buildings in the course of

the seminar, and was helpful in connoting a generational relationship between old and new.

How much is the average building owner or observer concerned with semantics, or the
philosophy or principles that guide new work to old buildings?

Not very – but people are interested in the end results. Change and new insertions or additions can

be exciting and help to engage people with a building. The capacity for narrative is embedded in how

architects do what they do. In general, people appreciate and value old buildings, but don’t necessarily

understand how they work and how things can go wrong. The SPAB aims to raise awareness of

breathability, traditional materials, and the value of maintenance.

What are the biggest challenges for the future?

The current building and conservation skills shortage and need for training. A lack of coverage of

architectural history and understanding traditional construction in architects’ education. Housing

needs viz a viz pressures on the green belt, and opportunities to use brownfield sites and to repopulate

city centres – this may require a bold approach to reusing old buildings. There is a continuing need to

make the best use of existing buildings, but much retrofitting in the recent past has been badly done

and counter-productive. Sensitive and effective upgrading of housing stock must remain high on the

agenda. The transfer of publicly owned heritage buildings into private ownership is gathering pace, and

can subject these buildings to commercial pressure for development that is hard to balance with their

other value (architectural, historic, social).

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What would be the impact if the process for obtaining ‘heritage consents’ (such as Listed
Building Consent) was privatised as Building Regulations has been, in part?

Listed buildings are a public good and assets in the community even if privately owned – the process for

managing change must also be public. Retaining competence in local authorities is vital.

Are architectural competitions a good way to encourage good new design?

The competition brief may ask rather different things of the architect than the project actually needs to

deliver for the client and for the building; but competitions may help new practices break into adaptive

reuse work. The way a winning entry is composed might not be the way the architect would necessarily

work-up and implement a scheme. Competitions are best when they elicit a response to a place, or help

to match a way of working with the client’s aims, rather than requiring a design solution. The Clandon

Park competition may, in future, be seen as a landmark in this respect. The panel concluded that “great

buildings come from great clients”.

Conclusions
• Good new design in historic contexts grows from understanding and respecting the old building –

research, context studies and detailed observation of the existing.

• Good new design is context-specific – whether it uses contrasting, complementary or closely

matching architectural language and materials, it should be honest and readable, and not confuse

the physical record of the building’s history.

• An imaginative and problem-solving approach can retain the maximum historic fabric and protect

the character of a building or place whilst also achieving the practical aims of the project. Boldness

can bear fruit – though local authority attitudes to new design for old buildings vary widely.

• All were agreed on the importance of the careful choice and quality of materials, and of

craftsmanship in their use.

• Conservation of old buildings and good new design go hand in hand, as in Kevin McCloud’s Foreword

to New Design for Old Buildings “…good conservation demands a clear and rigorous contemporary

approach to new work just as much as it requires delicacy and respect in dealing with the past”.

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Reading
New Design for Old Buildings – Roger Hunt and Iain Boyd, with Foreword by Kevin McCloud (2017)
SPAB / RIBA Publishing, ISBN 978-1-85946-612-4 (The book contains a helpful bibliography.)

The SPAB Approach: the conservation & care of old buildings – Matthew Slocombe (2017) available on
the SPAB website: https://www.spab.org.uk/campaigning/spab-approach

Building on the Past – Roger Hunt and Iain Boyd in SPAB Magazine, Autumn 2017, pp36-41

Definitions
BIM: Building Information Modelling is a process for creating and managing information on a

construction project across the project’s lifecycle. One of the key outputs of this process is the Building

Information Model, the digital description of every aspect of the built asset, based on information

assembled collaboratively - drawing together contributions from the different disciplines represented

in the project team - and updated at key stages of a project. BIM brings together all of the information

about every component of a building in one place and makes it possible for anyone to access that

information for any purpose (e.g. to integrate different aspects of the design more effectively).
https://www.rics.org/uk/knowledge/glossary/bim-intro/

Portland Stone: A shelly white-grey limestone of the Jurassic period, quarried in the Isle of Portland,
Dorset and used extensively as building stone around the UK and overseas. The stone occurs in beds

separated by layers of chert, with different beds having distinct characters. Broadly speaking, Basebed is

fine grained and suitable for ashlar work and fine carving; Whitbed combines fine grains with shells and

small fossils and is commonly used for ashlar work and pavings; Roach bed is more shelly with distinctive

embedded fossils and is often seen in cladding and flooring.

COR-TEN (Corten): Trade/ generic name for high-strength, low alloy steel, also known as ‘weathering

steel’, used in architecture and sculpture for its structural and aesthetic properties, developing a stable

rust-like surface appearance in varied red-brown tones after a few years’ exposure.

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