A fun day - and interested in views

[Gareth Hughes]

I've spent today in Suffolk looking at entries for the Civic Trust Awards. I am not able to offer a final opinion at the moment, however one (part) entry the assessors visited was the new "dovecot" studio at Snape Maltings, adjacent to the famous complex of concert halls and other artistic venues. The original dovecot has been a ruin for more than a generation, and since (although there are photos) no-one alive actually remembers it as it was when it was complete, the decision was made to conserve the ruin and insert into it a new double-height artist's studio, approximately the same as the original building's volume, but in cor-ten (rusty) steel, lowered into the shell.
It's a rather fundamentalist conservation approach, but I thought it was rather fun, and appropriate to the workmanlike industrial setting which has been transformed into a rather arty one.
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[jocelyn plummer]

We were there last week, I appreciate the concept but I do not find it easy on the eye.

 

[skier-hughes]

I think it looks daft, I'd rather be able to view the ruins and they put the new building next to it, looks like there is plenty of room.

 

[Feltwell]

I think it looks daft, I'd rather be able to view the ruins and they put the new building next to it, looks like there is plenty of room.

Agreed - it looks wrong. Not innovative or original, just odd.

 

[Jill]

I like the idea but do not like the variation in rustiness as it is made from plates of steel. In a couple of years i imagine it will be completely covered with the climbers which will then stop the ruins from being viewed. Strange.

 

[Schoolmarm]

If they had stepped out the upper floor of the new build I would like it a lot more.

 

[Flyfisher]

If who had stepped out of the upper floor - the designers? :wink:

I'm afraid it's a bit lost on me. It reminds me of that slabs-of-steel sculpture in Broadgate, City of London. I believe the changing patterns of rust over time are supposed to be a part of the art, but I can't remember the exact rationale.

Edit: Just found it - it's by Richard Serra and is called the Fulcrum:

 

[TomW]

It reminds me of my Grandad's shed, which he made out of the sheets of steel from his Anderson shelter after the war. The concrete base of the shelter was turned into a pond where I spent many a happy hour as a kid hunting newts and frogs.
Before this thread spirals waaay off topic, I can't say I like this particular juxtaposition of the old and the just plain odd. For a start I hate the look of rusty metal, it makes me itch to get the wire brush and the pot of hammerite out. How long do they expect it to last?
Tom

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I rather like it - but also think it will look a bit of a mess fairly quickly.

I'd much rather have seen them conserve the remains a bit better too. I'm not sure they'll last more than another generation - by which time all we're left with is a rusty steel box slightly smaller than the original building.

What a fab job though - it must be very engaging.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I rather like it - but also think it will look a bit of a mess fairly quickly.

I'd much rather have seen them conserve the remains a bit better too. I'm not sure they'll last more than another generation - by which time all we're left with is a rusty steel box slightly smaller than the original building.

What a fab job though - it must be very engaging.

This was my day off
To be followed, as followers of another thread here will know, by a week of chicken-sitting. Off-topic we go (hello Fred!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EUytEX_XkE

 

[CatherineB]

I didn't like it at all until I saw the third picture, where you see it in context next to other buildings of the same sort of shape. So I can better understand the "why" now, but am still a bit confused as to whether/how it is intended to conserve the existing building, as FW says.

Each to their own, I suppose!

 

[Penners]

Off-topic we go (hello Fred!)

Just hang on over there a sec, Fred, while I add my on-topic comment (will wonders never cease?).

I entirely agree with Gareth.

Pick yourself up please, Gareth.

OK - carry on Fred.

 

[Moo]

I'm inclined to agree with Gareth, too - one so seldom sees a building with a sense of humour. It has a sense of impermanence; the powers-that-be can change their minds in years to come, and simply lift the new bit out and drop something else in there.

And I love that Richard Serra piece. It makes it worth going to Liverpool Street just to see it.

 

[philpjuk100]

If who had stepped out of the upper floor - the designers? :wink:

I'm afraid it's a bit lost on me. It reminds me of that slabs-of-steel sculpture in Broadgate, City of London. I believe the changing patterns of rust over time are supposed to be a part of the art, but I can't remember the exact rationale.

Edit: Just found it - it's by Richard Serra and is called the Fulcrum:

is the chap in the brown raincoat passing err "comment" on it?

 

[robgil]

i like the way the new modern building sits with the old , the colour and roof pitch of each building sitting well with each other but surely the old ruin should have been taken away? i can understand why ruins like the acropolis or the great pyramids are preserved but a few small crumbling walls like this? where is the sense in that? surely if more of the building survived then yes protect it but where do you draw the line in protecting ruins?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Well, Snape Maltings is one of the winners.

http://www.civictrustawards.org.uk/news/news-stories/2011-award-winners-announced

I couldn't claim to know very many of the other winning projects, but an interesting selection, having googled a few of them.

 

[Penners]

I see three of the seven special awards went to Scottish projects.

My point? Well...er... none really..... :?