Wednesday evening our studio attended an interesting event organized by The Sir John Soane Museum, The Landmark Trust and the LSE Cities Programme. The event was titled: Broken Edges: Cities and Other Ruins – an exhibition at Soane’s, followed by a lecture and discussion at LSE. The centre piece of the event was Astley Castle, this year’s RIBA Stirling Prize Winner, an inspired restoration and development of a ruin by the Architects Witherford Watson Mann on behalf of Landmark Trust. This event well rounded our recent thoughts on the poetics of work-in-progress, especially that of the construction process.
The beauty of a ruin, like that of a building site, resides in our ability to see into the temporary state of a building. The time unfolds in front of us, opening up layers of time previously hidden in a way which often inspires the end result…
Sometimes, the state of the temporary lasts in continuum. Cities are just such an example, where making and re-making of the physicality around us makes up for a vibrant city.
At other times and on a smaller scale, this state is short lived, or at least most visible over shorter period of time. This is the case with building sites. Our projects-in-progress, one in London and another in Dorset, sometimes inspire a wish to suspend the moment of progress. A wish to retain the ruin. but also to complete it…
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Restoration of Astley Castle in Warwickshire by Witherford Watson Mann architects.
(source: theguardian.com) |
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Broken edge between the old and the new at Astley Castle.
(source: openbuildings.com) |
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| Old Fireplace at Ebenezer Cottage in Dorset. |
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| Work-in-progress at Ebenezer Cottage. |
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| Old masonry walls at Ebenezer Cottage. |
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| Old and new timbers at Elizabeth Mews in London. |
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| Old brickwork arch and ceiling timbers at Elizabeth Mews. |
