Historic place becomes digital archive

Guy and James discuss an unusual site for a modern enterprise.

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James: Great old building.

Guy: Carpenter Gothic.

James: Means?

Guy: Don’t know the designer. Records were lost but it is said that the builder just drew a rough sketch and made it up as he went along.

James: Plenty of room for extension.

Guy: Being a wooden building bit of a fire hazard for valuable documents.

James: It's got sensors and sprinklers.

Guy: The combination of old and new is appealing. A historic place, an important cultural relic, housing a regional digital archive.

James: Half the councillors want to turn it into a restaurant.

Guy: A quick fix to bring in some money. Culture takes a back seat to commerce again.

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Coffee shop plan

Frank, an energetic retired engineer in his 80s, has an idea for putting the roof of his small museum to use and shows Lloyd the approach he has in mind.

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Frank: Come on up.

Lloyd: This is the access?

Frank: It’s not so difficult.

Lloyd: This ladder is an antique. It’s an artifact.

Frank: My point. We’re only allowed to build a storage room for archives and artifacts on the roof.

Lloyd: Is that all?

Frank: But look at the view from up here. Great sight for a coffee shop. Recreate coffee houses as a modern place to work. Wireless and coffee.

Lloyd: But you can’t get planning approval for a coffee shop?

Frank: Not to say it can’t be done. Archiving is a foot in the door. Put in a kitchen and toilet and Bob’s your uncle.

Lloyd: And build in a new staircase.

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Designing new buildings to saving old ones

Jack is sitting out on the deck, talking to Bill, an architect, looking back on his career.

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Jack: So you began your career in 1949?

Bill: About then. It was just after the war and the country was gung-ho with new ideas. I was drawn to simplicity in form, particularly the work of Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe.

Jack: Hence your buildings in a minimalist style?

Bill: That’s it.

Jack: And then over the past twenty years you’ve been very active in the Historic Places Trust.

Bill: Yes, advising on which buildings are worth keeping and which less so. Giving them a grading. It’s a bit ironic really. I started my life designing new buildings and ended up saving old ones.
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Polystyrene columns

Geoff and Fred, demolition experts have been called in to remove the columns and portico from the front of a house in Pearly Drive.

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Geoff: God. Massive columns.

Fred: Must be a great view from up there. Why does he want to take it down?

Geoff: He doesn’t. He didn’t have a permit and the building inspectors came by and issued a court order to remove it.

Fred: Aw heck. Spoilsports. Looks really swanky.

Geoff: Well, it might look grand but it really doesn’t suit the house. Too “overstated” I heard an architect say.

Fred: Reckon there’s a week’s work there. Maybe we’ll need some charges to knock them down.

Geoff: Won't be necessary. The columns are only molded polystyrene, the deck is plywood. We’ll clean it up by tomorrow night.

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Architecture and integrity

You’ve been insisting on it for years, integrity in building design, maybe I am beginning to understand.


It’s not a difficult concept.


It’s just the use of the word “integrity” that that made it hard.


What do you think it means?


I think you could use other words. Like honest, necessary, functional, practical, minimalist even.


So now you could like a house like this one?


It has a beauty, hmm, maybe it would be OK for camping.


Only short-term? Well, how about something like this?


Looks grand, has atmosphere. Probably quite liveable, gives shelter, protects the occupants.


Those columns don’t hold up the structure, you know. They are just decoration for its own sake.


Gratuitous?


All these big words. Why don’t people understand just from looking at a building what is good and what is not?


Architecture still needs explaining. Architects need wordsmiths
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Windows in houses

It went up in...?
1952 it would have been.
t has a nice atmosphere even at 55 years old. The view out onto the fields. As architect, did you design the view?
You might say that. I had the philosophy then, and still do, that when you design a house you go sit on the land and put rocks or sticks in the places you want the windows to be. Then you build the house around the windows.
So you mean some architects put the walls in and then cut windows in to see out?
Not only THAT. Some are more concerned with what the elevation is like...
Elevation?
What it looks like from the outside.
Mmm. I know. When you spend 90 per cent INside the house and 10 percent OUTside, it makes more sense to put the focus on being comfortable inside.
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