Essays
Conservation, Restoration, Preservation or Repair?
It has become commonplace to hear the term ‘restoration’ used when discussing the repair or development of an historic building. Those who watch Grand Designs and other similar TV property makeover programmes will be familiar with people who want to ‘restore this beautiful old house’.
Yet in the built environment sector we avoid the word restoration mainly for the reason that a building can never be restored to its original condition; the material has aged and weathered, accumulated small repairs and alterations. Even if perfect records were to exist, the building has through age and use acquired a history, a patina, layers of meaning and material that add to its character and quality. That is not to say that buildings that have deteriorated cannot be put back into condition and even made more suitable for modern use, but that is not restoration. It is repair or improvement.
Many buildings have been unthinkingly ‘improved’ in the past, often in the last four decades: inappropriate alterations, additions, redecorations and improvements that have often, distressingly, meant the loss not only of historic building material but also of architectural quality and character. By removing such accumulated ‘improvements’ and perhaps, by reinstating lost elements and architectural form, buildings can of course be partially restored, to an earlier condition.
At Stow & Beale we much prefer the term ‘conservation’ which although rather a catch-all term does have a more appropriate use in that it is taken to mean respectful and professional work of all types involving the repair and improvement of existing historic buildings.
The term ‘preservation’ we use rather more sparingly. It is used when the aim of project is to keep the building or monument in its present condition or to halt continuing damage due to age and weathering.
Fortunately the even more dangerous term ’refurbishment’ - which means ‘a brightening up’ - has almost disappeared from the lexicon.
As architects committed to conservation we prefer to describe what we do as either repair or adaptation. Historic building fabric is repaired using like-for-like materials and construction methods to achieve a comparable and coherent effect. This is carried out without pretending that the new material is the same age as the older. Missing elements may be reinstated for structural reasons or sometimes for aesthetic effect, where, for example, the loss of a piece of decorative stonework interrupts the regular pattern of a classical elevation.
We take the view that the adaptation of an old building for new use is best achieved by the combination of the harmonious intervention of modern materials and forms that sympathise with the old. The benefit of this approach is that it extends the active life of the building for many years underpinning the most valuable contribution of conservation - to keep a building in use.