COURTESY OF GEOMETRIA AND THE GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH GEORGIA & THE SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS
SHARING EXPERTISE
1
Tom Brigden and Rowenna Wood report back from Purcell’s international outposts with evidence of how the practice continues to develop conservation policy and guidance overseas, and how this is helping to refine best practice
6
PURCELL
A
success can be seen to lie in its sensibility s a champion of heritage in its and flexibility in navigating the practicalities many diverse forms, Purcell has a and philosophy of conservation for each site, curiosity and enthusiasm for building or object, regardless of location. conserving heritage sites across the There are significant benefits to Purcell’s world. At the heart of this passion is the core breadth of international experience, feeding belief – following UNESCO’s World Heritage through the professional development of all Convention held in 1972 – that it is the collective responsibility of us all to safeguard staff, informing a thoughtful response to every client’s brief and the sharing of our shared heritage. This ideology motivates knowledge and expertise. For Purcell’s Purcell’s teams of architects, surveyors and teams, the practice of conservation across heritage consultants to fully engage in such diverse environments presents international conservation practice. Purcell’s passion for heritage is matched by unique skills and expertise that have been sought by organisations in the UK and abroad, leading them from the remote foothills of Snowdonia National Park to bustling inner-city Hong Kong and the abandoned whaling stations of the subAntarctic island of South Georgia. The practice’s first foray overseas was in the 1980s with the reordering of the chapel of 2 the English College in Rome. By the 1990s, numerous opportunities to interrogate offices operated in Germany and Ireland, and test established beliefs about the and a major project was delivered to convert management of cultural heritage. For client a former French colonial barracks in teams, the knowledge and experience gained Istanbul into a luxury hotel. by Purcell in one context may be successfully Purcell’s teams still work in several global transferred to addressing the opportunities locations, including the Commonwealth War and challenges of another. And local Graves Commission’s cemeteries and communities and other project stakeholders memorials in Italy, Israel, Myanmar, India, benefit from Purcell’s experience of Egypt and Belgium. The Commission technical solutions, as well as funding advice honours the 1.7 million men and women of and targeted training in craft skills. Led for the Commonwealth forces who died in the many years by partner Michael Morrison, the First and Second World Wars, in perpetuity. practice acknowledges his belief that ‘the Four decades on from that first overseas effect our international work has upon our project, the root of Purcell’s international
work in the UK, and vice versa, is to stop us taking things for granted – we approach each conservation project with an open mind, we are less ready to just accept the conventional solution’. The projects covered in this article are indicative of the broad range of Purcell’s work, with each case demonstrating the value the practice provides through a deep understanding of historic building practices, developing solutions to recurring issues, and a back catalogue of tried-and-tested approaches to management, repair and adaptive reuse. Approaching heritage in entirely different contexts and considering the impact that physical, regulatory and cultural characteristics of a site have on conservation philosophies has offered up new insights in heritage and conservation that have been successfully applied in the UK and elsewhere.
A common (sense) approach
On each heritage site – wherever it may be – Purcell adopts an analytical approach with two stages: first, to build a thorough understanding of the place, informed by research and consultation, to identify and understand relative significance values that contribute to the fabric and the spirit of place – a process that, in the case of war cemeteries, battlefields, former prisons or institutions can be particularly emotive; and second, to devise a programme of works that ensures the conservation and interpretation of these values for future generations, whether through repairs, alterations,
