From the Twentieth Century Society’s C20 and the Association of Preservation Technology Bulletin to TM: Theatres Magazine and the Journal of the Chapels Society, IHBC Research Consultant Bob Kindred MBE looks at a recent selection of conservation journals in Context No.147.
The latest edition of C20 looked at the Twentieth Century Society’s recently published book 50 Architects, 50 Buildings: the buildings that inspire architects and the current debate about post-modernism, which discussed the problems of understand the different strands of the argument. But it raises the concern that local planning authorities, Historic England and the DCMS might be more open to the negative than the positive arguments relating to post-modernism.
In the Association of Preservation Technology Bulletin there is a theme of cultural landscapes as a tribute to Susan Buggey, who had a pioneering impact in North America in the study and interpretation of cultural landscapes. There’s also an article on the evolution of landscape preservation over a 40-year period, which looks at the significance of the First International Symposium on the Conservation and Restoration of Gardens of Historic Interest at Fontainebleau in the 1970s. It also contains an eight-page section on Practice Points, which summarises current US thinking on the conservation of architectural terracotta.
The latest TM: Theatres Magazine focuses on the Theatre Buildings at Risk Register, which contains 36 buildings in 2016. It lists these buildings, maps their locations and focuses on the campaign groups working to restore theatres at risk across the country. Another piece is by John Earl, one of the IHBC’s founder members, who gives a personal account of the decades that surrounded the setting up of the Theatres Trust.
The Journal of the Chapels Society deals with the commissioning of chapels in the 19th century, particularly during the chapel-building boom of the 1880s, when many chapels were enlarged to provide additional functions, including schools, and many grander chapels were built, often on new sites and in the gothic style.
The latest Natural Stone Specialist reports how Cotswold Stone Solutions has gained consent to extract additional Guiting limestone from its quarries near Cheltenham, which has been used at sites such as Windsor Castle, Hampton Court, Blenheim Palace, Eton College and Truro Cathedral.
Read the full Context article
