13 minute read
Sharing expertise
COURTESY OF GEOMETRIA AND THE GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH GEORGIA & THE SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS
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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
As a champion of heritage in its many diverse forms, Purcell has a curiosity and enthusiasm for conserving heritage sites across the world. At the heart of this passion is the core belief – following UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention held in 1972 – that it is the collective responsibility of us all to safeguard our shared heritage. This ideology motivates Purcell’s teams of architects, surveyors and heritage consultants to fully engage in 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 the English College in Rome. By the 1990s, offices operated in Germany and Ireland, and a major project was delivered to convert a former French colonial barracks in Istanbul into a luxury hotel.
Purcell’s teams still work in several global locations, including the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s cemeteries and memorials in Italy, Israel, Myanmar, India, Egypt and Belgium. The Commission honours the 1.7 million men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the First and Second World Wars, in perpetuity. Four decades on from that first overseas project, the root of Purcell’s international success can be seen to lie in its sensibility and flexibility in navigating the practicalities and philosophy of conservation for each site, building or object, regardless of location.
There are significant benefits to Purcell’s breadth of international experience, feeding through the professional development of all staff, informing a thoughtful response to every client’s brief and the sharing of knowledge and expertise. For Purcell’s teams, the practice of conservation across such diverse environments presents
numerous opportunities to interrogate and test established beliefs about the management of cultural heritage. For client teams, the knowledge and experience gained by Purcell in one context may be successfully transferred to addressing the opportunities and challenges of another. And local communities and other project stakeholders benefit from Purcell’s experience of technical solutions, as well as funding advice and targeted training in craft skills. Led for many years by partner Michael Morrison, the practice acknowledges his belief that ‘the effect our international work has upon our 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,
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PURCELL
1. Laser scan image of
Stromness Whaling Station, South Georgia
2. Guano (meat and bone
meal) processing plant at Grytviken Whaling Station, South Georgia
3. Kohima War Cemetery
in Nagaland, India
Chris McLean, Surveyor, Commonwealth War Graves Commission
enhancements and new additions or simply well-organised maintenance of the site.
This two-stage approach is, in each case, identical, though conservation outcomes necessarily reflect the specific characteristics of each site. Retaining significance, for example, may be considerably more challenging in an international context where the heritage infrastructure differs from that of the UK and where circumstances – climatic, political or financial – may be more extreme. However, the application of a good deal of common sense – and, where necessary, a pragmatic acceptance that what is right in one context may not be right in another – allows for a successful outcome. In these cases, Purcell’s ability to draw on extensive experience enables the practice to help organisations, communities and other stakeholders navigate the application of internationally accepted conservation principles in response to the specific characteristics of each place. Some 1,400km south-east of the Falkland Islands on South Georgia, remoteness has preserved some of the most complete examples of 20th-century whaling stations in the world – evidence of an industry many would prefer to forget. Here, philosophical questions about the nature of cultural heritage were paired with geographic complexities: strong katabatic winds rip through the stations, snow weighs down roofs and vessels, ice fills the bay in winter and, throughout the year, rough seas make access to the island slow. The conditions are compounded by a short building season and the logistical challenges of acquiring materials, tools and skills – yet, training a dedicated team, providing conservation advice remotely, identifying key maintenance tasks and planning ahead enables a surprising amount to be done each year to conserve the stations.
Full restoration of all South Georgia’s whaling stations presents numerous challenges, not least the limited funding and resources available, along with the removal and disposal of huge amounts of asbestos from unsafe buildings (steam was the motive power and asbestos the preferred form of lagging). While the government has invested in the cleaning up of one whaling station at Grytviken, an approach of managed decline has been adopted generally. In this instance, uninterrupted decay and a return to nature is considered part of the natural lifecycle of the sites; ‘conservation’ is understood more holistically as the maintenance of natural and cultural heritage values. Enabling this has included carrying out a comprehensive laser scan and photographic survey of the structures to ensure a high-quality archival record is maintained for future generations.
Even more extreme are the huts of Scott and Shackleton on Ross Island, Antarctica; these are the most remote sites Purcell – or, almost certainly, anyone – has had the opportunity on which to work. Filled with a panoply of personal artefacts, provisions and scientific equipment associated with the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, their conservation necessitates not only an international collaborative effort but also a bespoke approach. Antarctica’s climatic extremes and poor access to materials, labour, and even power required for conservation works, meant the usual installation of environmental controls was simply not a realistic option. Purcell’s work helped New Zealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust to develop a conservation strategy that responded both to retention of significance and practical complexities. Work is now complete on three of the four Heroic Era huts and continues on the fourth, located at the remote Cape Adare.
Purcell’s work with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, on the other hand, has presented an array of conservation challenges in tropical, mountainous and desert climates. Kohima War Cemetery’s location in the monsoon-swept foothills of north-east India incurs the challenges of the natural environment in the form of earthquakes and landslides that have seen swathes of land and the irrigation system fall away from the cemetery. At the same time, built encroachment and the crowds that descend to enjoy a rare green space in
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Jim Gardner RAIA, Director, GJM Heritage, Melbourne, Australia
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the city present issues unlike those seen in Antarctica. The sandblasting of stonework during desert storms in Egypt, the threats from open sewers in Myanmar and the spread of housing in Jerusalem are just a few examples of the many and varied circumstances in which the cemeteries and memorials have to be cared for.
Critical to providing viable advice for these sites has been Purcell’s close liaison with the Commission’s local and regional staff and collaboration alongside local landscape designers and architects to understand typical solutions. Purcell has advised on training programmes for staff at all levels to nurture the development of local skills and respond to variations in language and literacy. Contributing towards skills development within the Commission across its regions worldwide, and to support its work, Purcell has participated in workshops and delivered lectures on significance and conservation management planning.
Purcell also has expertise across diverse regulatory and institutional regimes, both in the UK and abroad. In some cases, strong heritage protection processes – which tend to treat buildings as archaeological relics –render adaptation in line with the needs of contemporary users particularly challenging. For example, in the provision of heritage consultancy services on major infrastructure projects, such as the regeneration of historic rail lines across Victoria and New South Wales, Australia, Purcell’s experience has been to manage the careful balancing act between the retention of highly significant 19th- and 20th-century railway infrastructure and the ability to upgrade lines, stations, bridges and tunnels to ensure they continue to serve their communities far into the future. Given the well-established nature of Australia’s heritage processes, collaboration with architects HASSELL and heritage consultants GJM Heritage has enabled the team to benefit from deep local knowledge as well as Purcell’s international expertise.
By way of contrast, at the former Central Police Station compound in Hong Kong, heritage considerations have often been overshadowed by stringent building codes that viewed the 19th-century buildings unfit for continued public use. The complex, occupying an entire city block, had been off-limits to the general public since its establishment. Purcell worked in close collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron and the client, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, to identify opportunities to open up the site and present its heritage values to a wider audience.
Purcell’s long relationship with the client and the site began with the preparation of a conservation management plan for the site and progressed through to detailed documentation for the conservation repair and adaptive reuse of 16 historic buildings, as well as the integration of two new buildings designed by Herzog & de Meuron. Together, the buildings, which house heritage interpretation displays, art exhibitions, performance venues and education and leisure spaces, as well as restaurants and shops, opened to the public in 2018. This once-closed area now forms a major new cultural hub in the heart of bustling Hong Kong.
Overcoming issues such as the sensitive upgrade of historic stairs along with construction that would meet current building codes required careful, sustained discussion with the relevant government departments; Purcell’s extensive global experience in this field was, therefore, crucial to the achievement of consents for a sensitive and ‘light-touch’ approach. At the same time, Purcell was critical in navigating culturally diverse understandings of heritage and conservation that were inevitable in a complex project involving multinational teams of architects, designers, contractors and craftspeople. UNESCO has been grappling with issues of cultural diversity for some time, resulting in its 1994 publication, TheNara Document on Authenticity. Essentially, UNESCO recognised that the concept of authenticity varies from culture to culture. Likewise, during works to the Central Police Station compound, Purcell’s team worked hard to
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Ascan Mergenthaler, Senior Partner, Herzog & de Meuron
retain historic elements such as cast-iron gutters and downpipes, which local workers were inclined to replace with new as a mark of respect to the site’s heritage. Retaining these features was achieved through a training scheme for architectural staff who were recruited locally and a search for the appropriate materials and craftspeople.
Then, of course, there are those places where heritage legislation and infrastructure are yet to be implemented or, in the case of South Georgia, do not exist. In terms of the project in South Georgia, Purcell played a crucial role in developing policy, guidance and management documents on behalf of, and in collaboration with, the government. The practice prepared the Heritage Framework and Strategy: South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, providing overarching guidance on the territory’s heritage places and how they should be cared for. At the framework’s core are the ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) principles, but the guidance is also honest about the underlying lack of resources that means difficult choices have to be made about what can realistically be conserved. The philosophy behind Purcell’s conservation management plan for Grytviken whaling station is based on the preservation of significance through the enhancement of the site’s legibility. This benefits the island’s growing number of visitors while allowing a range of options for the site’s future management and ensuring guiding principles for regular maintenance works are both sound and realistic.
The benefits of sharing expertise internationally
The complex, diverse characteristics of each heritage place have shaped how Purcell approaches its work. Not least, its skilled individuals address every site with feet firmly on the ground – after all, a client team only benefits from advice that is achievable in terms of access to materials, skills or finance. Thinking laterally about the most beneficial outcomes achievable with the resources available is a critical component of every project, be it in the UK or elsewhere.
Purcell’s overseas work benefits clients in the UK and abroad. Its professionals can draw on the expertise of the wider practice; examples include Sydney-based partner, Tracey Skovronek, who is taking Purcell into the transport sector with new rail projects in Australia, and London-based associate Andrew Rowland, leading on new residential masterplanning initiatives on projects such as the redevelopment of Dorchester Prison forrepeat client City & Country. Equally, Purcell’s experience in South Georgia informed its advice on managing the dilapidated wartime buildings at Orford Ness, a remote spit on the Suffolk coast.
Access to Orford Ness may not be as tricky as to South Georgia but the site is still very remote – despite being less than 20 miles from Ipswich. There is also much debate about balancing the requirements of a site that has almost every nature conservation designation available and is open to the public, and the need to conserve an array of unique buildings relating to inter-war and post-war military experiments, including now-collapsing scheduled atomic research station buildings. The low-lying coastal locations of Orford Ness and South Georgia mean both are impacted by the weather and coastal erosion, and both have adopted laser-scanning technologies so there are detailed recordings of the sites for future study, even when the sites themselves have been lost.
The benefits Purcell brings to the global context may be summed up as follows: it always brings a sensibility and flexibility towards conservation outcomes, informed by a common-sense approach for each site, building or object, regardless of location.
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4. At Central Police
Station compound, Prison Yard has been restored to create a new urban space that provides the setting for Herzog and de Meuron’s new JC Contemporary building
5. Purcell led the
conservation repair and adaptive reuse of 16 historic buildings on
the site 6. Residential
redevelopment at Dorchester Prison
7. The National Trust’s
Orford Ness National
Nature Reserve 8. Bendigo
Railway Station, Victoria, Australia c.1860
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA 8 7
