QUESTION TIME
The much adored and lovingly restored St Pancras Station has been threatened with demolition in the past.
safe now, and ripe for a handsome restoration (it certainly needs it, it’s scandalously roughly treated). Incidentally, one always knows we’re in for the next recession when someone suggests rebuilding the Euston Arch. The first principle of timelessness is surely that a building should not conform to the silliness of fashion (tics du jour are the dreaded barcode windows, leaning columns and rather earnest plywood); in
other words it should be ‘out of time’. Lasdun’s National Theatre – and indeed the British Library – always had this gravitas. They were never exactly ‘current’. Conversely, the opposite also pertains. Sometimes a building, such as Foster’s Sainsbury Centre, achieves ‘classic’ status precisely because it is quintessentially of its time. Then on occasion, we might appreciate buildings for their vision of a future that
never came to pass, with the same enjoyment that we giggle at Thunderbirds recording the whole world’s communications on two tape recorders (I’m thinking of Centre Point here, or the Commonwealth Institute). Curiously, a corresponding version of the past rarely generates such affection – think how embarrassing Poundbury is in its evocation of a merry England that never was. But sometimes, it’s a question
simply of having survived; like those terraced houses acquired by the National Trust, the rooms bathed in 1950s light and Omo packets still on the kitchen shelves. n
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THE EXPERTS...
KARL RENNER PARTNER, CLARKE RENNER ARCHITECTS
With more than thirty-six years experience Karl has worked with many of the
major housing developers, such as Berkeley, Linden, Barratt and London Square. He studied Architecture at Manchester Polytechnic and worked at BDP, Feilden and Mawson, Chapman Taylor and Covell Matthews Wheatley, before forming Clarke Renner Architects (with David Clarke) in 1985. Since then he has worked on many projects, but has concentrated on housing, both private and affordable.
NICK COLLINS ARCHITECTURAL DIRECTOR, BARTON WILLMORE
Nick joined Barton Willmore in 1998 and became a director in
2005. He is responsible for the Reading architectural team providing architectural design and delivery services on projects throughout the UK. Nick has been central to the design, implementation and co-ordination of projects ranging from contemporary interiors, including bespoke furniture and signage design, through to large scale office, retail, leisure, mixed-use redevelopments and energy and waste facilities.
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