{"id":45982,"date":"2026-03-13T16:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=45982"},"modified":"2026-03-13T15:21:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T15:21:25","slug":"ihbcs-new-context-no-186-does-more-heavy-lifting-for-members-on-infrastructure-and-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=45982","title":{"rendered":"IHBC\u2019s new Context, No. 186, does more heavy lifting for members: on \u2018Infrastructure and Industry\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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IHBC\u2019s new issue of its members\u2019 journal Context<\/em><\/a> is out \u2013 No. 186<\/a> \u2013  takes a heftier view of heritage opportunities, from Scotland\u2019s \u2018uplifting\u2019 heritage and reusing big industrial structures to its conservation areas, railway infrastructure, and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The IHBC writes on \u2018The big picture\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conserving infrastructure can be difficult. It\u2019s often big, making it expensive to maintain or repurpose. It reflects the technology of its time and may be no longer useful. It may be part of a system that is still in use. Remember the Big Dig, the nickname of the Boston Central Artery\/Tunnel Project, which rerouted Interstate Highway 93 from the elevated Central Artery highway through a tunnel after it had cut off the city centre from its waterfront for four decades? When the new road opened in 2003, five years late and wildly over budget, a former director of the project described it as \u2018doing open heart surgery on a patient who continues to work and play tennis\u2019.  US Representative Barney Frank commented that it would have been cheaper to elevate the city than depress the artery (which was probably inspired by producer Lew Grade\u2019s comment about his film Raise the Titanic: \u2018It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic\u2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Infrastructure consists of the basic physical and organisational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society or enterprise. Building it in the first place is often unpopular, generally due to its size, expense and unfamiliarity. John Ruskin, for example, was a vehement opponent of railways, seeing them as symbols of materialism and greed. It certainly was not worth trying to make them beautiful. \u2018There never was more flagrant nor impertinent folly than the smallest portion of ornament in anything concerned with railroads or near them,\u2019 he wrote in The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849). \u2018Keep them out of the way, take them through the ugliest country you can find, confess them the miserable things they are, and spend nothing upon them but for safety and speed.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he were around today, Ruskin would be considering whether to support the UK\u2019s most expensive infrastructure projects, which probably (\u2018probably\u2019, because the likely eventual cost of any major infrastructure project is always a mystery) include High-Speed Rail 2, Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C nuclear power stations, the Lower Thames Crossing road project, and the Thames Tideway Tunnel super sewer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time adds a new dimension to our appreciation of infrastructure, like any other type of heritage. We are taken back to the past to marvel at what was achieved with such sophistication and at what scale. Impressive structures \u2013 cranes, ironworks, cooling towers or whatever else \u2013 become symbols of the industries that shaped places. Sometimes, with imagination, they can provide the structure for a new activity that their hard-headed, original creators never thought of. And a time-travelling Ruskin might be surprised to discover that it is often those unadorned structures for which no one thought it worth paying for a \u2018portion of ornament\u2019 that most impress us today with their beauty and power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Context<\/em> 186<\/em><\/a>: CONTENTS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regular & <\/u><\/strong>Occasional <\/u><\/strong>features <\/u><\/strong>& <\/u><\/strong>updates<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n