072 RUINS
atmosphere of sanctuary to stop them from questioning their addictions.
But retail and hospitality have long had a penchant for capitalising on architecture’s past glories to lend new concepts gravitas and allure. Of far more enduring value to the wider populace is when neglected or under-utilised, local landmarks are lovingly restored and reinvented for the whole community to enjoy. And that is a factor recognised in the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s decision to switch its pipeline away from culture and towards facilities that might improve community
cohesion. In their current roster, historic buildings and significant sites feature prominently, from graveyards (such as Coventry’s London Road cemetery) to much loved but structurally at risk local institutions like Te Courtauld.
Caruso St John, the London and Zurich based practice, may be better known for creating landmark buildings for art, such as Walsall New Art Gallery which made their name in 2000, or the various monolithic, sculptural statements they have conjured for New York commercial gallery Gagosian’s outposts, in
London and elsewhere. But their current project is a building that is the opposite of ‘starchitecture’. It involves the quiet restoration and enhancement of an arts and crafts house in Arbroath, Hospitalfields, which itself was built on the ruins of a medieval monastery. ‘We have always been equally interested in working on existing and old buildings, as well as creating new ones,’ Peter St John tells me. But he agrees that the current mood has swerved away from extravagant statement buildings, and doubts that there will be many new buildings commissioned for culture,
CASE STUDY THE COURTAULD INSTITUTE
The Courtauld Institute may present as one long, sweeping neo-classical facade as it faces The Strand, but behind this unified 1770s front, architect Sir William Chambers’ creation housed nine institutions in five Georgian townhouses, including the nascent Royal Academy, the Royal Society and Society of Antiquaries and later the General Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths. The Courtauld only relocated there in 1989, doing its best to inhabit what the architects of its reinvention, Witherford Watson Mann (WWM), describe as ‘an idiosyncratic assemblage of disconnected suites’. A major
overhaul of the whole complex has long been overdue; if its condition wasn’t quite ruinous, it was certainly endangered. The lack of connections between buildings, the multiple changes of level between floors, and the accretions of various eras of ofice and administrative insertions made for a dificult institution to run both as an exhibition space, a collection and archive, and also an educational establishment. But it made the logistics of the redesign possibly more of a headache, along with the challenge of creating a coherent material and visual palette despite the various influences Chambers had
drawn on – French classicism, Italian baroque, Inigo Jones and Vanbrugh – and all while adhering
to the strict requirements of its Grade I listing.
Incorporating several major interventions and ‘1,000 small adjustments’, according to Stephen Witherford, refurbishment has been carefully calibrated to smooth the visitor’s journey around the complex, expand and upgrade both display and conservation space, and also support the Courtauld’s curatorial agenda, grouping its world class collection by themes. New and transformed galleries are devoted to the Medieval and Early Renaissance
collection, as well as
to 20th century art. A suite of six galleries will showcase some of the highlights of the collection, from Renaissance paintings to decorative arts, including the Courtauld’s celebrated works by Peter Paul Rubens. A new Bloomsbury Room is located on the top floor, in an immersive, domestic presentation, while in the attic, the removal of former apartments has made space for two full-height galleries where the Courtauld will host international loans.
Well-loved features, such as the Courtauld’s domed skylights and spiral staircase with its distinctive
RICHARDS STUDIO
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