A huge thankyou to all that joined us at the Royal College of Music in London for our Big Conversation 2024 event. While the weather hadn’t been hugely kind to us our hosts at the RCM were warmly welcoming and took us on a site tour of specialist areas of the College. The tour was among the most enjoyable and interesting of any we’ve ever had – thankyou to Aida Berhamovic and team at the RCM for all of their arrangements.
Our headline speaker Amanda Levete CBE gave us analysis by example, and what extraordinary examples of worldwide projects they were, any one of which might inspire us in our own work. In a period where we are increasingly thinking of reuse, refit and refurbish, Amanda highlighted the need to reuse what you’ve got, with examples drawn from Lisbon, as well as from the Victoria & Albert Museum and Wadham College, Oxford. The entire discussion was framed in consciousness of the recent AUDE publication ‘Legacy Buildings Guide’. Amanda asked us to root our buildings in their location, so that they couldn’t possibly be anywhere else. This includes her work on Belgrade’s Philharmonic Concert Hall, where rewilding of the area virtually to the steps of the building places it firmly in its specific context; and the new entrance to the Paisley Museum which helps to tell the story of the industrial, design and craft traditions of the town (and where incidentally a radically supportive town council client has made the project such a rewarding one). She described the way in which architecture can reset the expectations of the buildings’ users (such as in the V&A example), solve long-standing access issues (‘our buildings have to be exemplars of accessibility’) and capture people’s imagination.
Our panel discussion asked our speakers to address the issues that legacy buildings create from a wide range of directions. With the help of Ann Allen MBE (Leeds), Aida Berhamovic (RCM), Mike Clark (Trinity College Dublin) and Dr Paul Horan (Technological University Dublin) we looked at all kinds of challenges, including the need to stay operational during complex works; the difficulties of dealing with piecemeal inheritances with no logical throughline; making refitted spaces better social spaces imbued with 21st century attitudes around inclusion and accessibility; and the need to integrate technology. Our speakers considered the sheer size, scope and variety of some of these projects; the need for swing space and phased approaches to make complex multi-year projects viable; as well as technical aspects including atmospheric moisture, condensation and airtightness; and the need to move masterplans to an almost total focus on refitting ahead of building new. The key message must surely have been around space utilisation. At a point in time where university finances are under such scrutiny, is now finally the time for directors of estates to initiate tough conversations about the way we use space? How much space does a campus need? Less.
We are very grateful to Christian Bull of event headline supporter Mills & Reeve, for chairing our discussions. You can read his response to our Legacy Buildings Guide online.
The AUDE Big Conversation will be CPD accredited.
Thanks to our headline supporter
