Building in a conservation environment

 

In this blog, we look at strategies for staying where you live or work already, and the minimal adaptations that you can make to your environment with the least impact on your space and budget. This relates to my lifelong passion for conservation and history of architecture, in that the least impact on the built environment generally equates to the most historically sensitive. This said, it is not always possible to change only the fittings and furniture particularly as the modern word has changing requirements for services and transportation - we need to make larger-scale adaptations, which take on an additional considerations when working in a historical or conservation environment.

My involvement in conservation dates back to the 1980s, when as a newly graduated architect, I was approached to assist with the garden and parking layout of Hazeldene Hall, a historical building in Johannesburg. The owners wanted to convert this mansion into a restaurant, which had to comply with the municipal requirement for parking since Joburg had become a very car-orientated city, yet from a heritage perspective, the formal garden was an integral part of the aesthetic value of the building. This was a great introduction to the balancing act that confronts many designers in a conservation context - weighing up the needs of the present with sensitivity to the historic fabric.

In the early 1990s, I was first introduced to Rhodes Village in the Eastern Cape in South Africa, close to the Lesotho border. The village had been proclaimed in the 1890s, but only really started to be built up in the early years of the Twentieth Century. For most of the century, the village stagnated, with a brief period of popularity in the 1960s when it became an artists' colony. When it became popular again in the 1980s, the 1920s character of the village started to be threatened, with new infill housing being built that did not fit with the character of the older structures.

A very active Rhodes Residents and Ratepayers Association emerged in 1993, who motivated for the village to be proclaimed a conservation area as a means of preserving the character of the streetscape. I had recently been commissioned by a friend to work on the refurbishment of one of the historical houses which had been vacant for several decades and had been used as a sheep shelter, which the owners wanted to restore to being a house. 

Refurbished house at Rhodes: street view

The approach we used was to preserve as much of the existing brickwork as possible, and any new work, such as windows, doors and the roof, would be kept as simple as possible and in keeping with the older houses of the village. We needed to add a bedroom, which we did on the side away from the street, to preserve the authentic aesthetic of the facade. For the addition, we managed to source bricks that were manufactured using a similar clay and technology to the original masonry. This created space for a deck, which we kept as simple as possible so that it did not draw attention from the older parts of the house.

Refurbished house at Rhodes: view of deck

The success of this refurbishment prompted the Residents and Ratepayers Association to approach me to assist with motivating for the village to be proclaimed a heritage area, and as part of this, we developed a set of prototypes and guidelines for new infill buildings and alterations to the existing ones. The prototypes were all based on historical precedents from the Victorian and Edwardian era that can be found in many of the villages and small towns in South Africa and throughout in the British Commonwealth. 

Rhodes prototype 4

In all cases, the prototypes were kept as simple as possible, with careful introduction of bathrooms and other modern features so that the character of the original models was preserved. The Residents and Ratepayers Association and I developed five prototypes of different house layouts, each of which could have a variety of aesthetics in keeping with the historic character.

The guidelines also provided prototypes for outbuildings, as one of the most important aspects of designing in a heritage area is to consider the totality of the design in its setting, as I first experienced in my work on Hazeldene Hall. These outbuilding designs were also informed by the existing ancillary structures found in the village, such as coach houses which gave a ready precedent for a modern garage. To preserve the tiny scale of the existing houses, the guidelines also recommended that instead of enlarging a house, a new outbuilding could be built adjacent, to provide additional accommodation.

A vitally important aspect of conservation work - whether new infill buildings or extensions and alterations to existing ones, lies in the detail. At Rhodes, we were fortunate to have a number of traditional skills, including brick-making and quarrying using the local stone. This allowed us to replicate the materials, colours and textures of the older structures. Where we could not do this, the strategy was to keep the new work as simple as possible, preserving the proportions of the existing elements, such as windows.

Veranda and window details

Verandas were very popular in the original houses and even on some of the larger buildings, such as the Rhodes Hotel. Apart from providing the amenity of a shaded outdoor space for summer, these elements help to scale down the buildings and break up the larger volumes. Here we had an interesting challenge, as several of the older buildings had decorative fretwork on the verandas, added in the 1930s, so some of the new homeowners thought that these were authentic and wanted to add them. This brings into question the authenticity when working in a conservation area - do you attempt to replicate the past at the risk of Disneyfying, or should all new work proclaim itself as such? Which moment in the past are we taking as our point of departure? At Rhodes, we carved a middle ground, by preserving scale, colour and texture, but keeping the new work as simple as possible, out of respect for contemporary building practices. The original guidelines have since been expanded to include the work of Prof Walter Peters and includes the heritage legislation and by-laws.

Heritage is often a murky area, and one may find it difficult to know out whether your building has any heritage protection, and what this might entail. Some fairly recent buildings are considered historically important, so age is not necessarily the only criterion. For this reason (among many other reasons that we will be exploring), I promote an approach of minimal impact, with a strong recommendation to consult - with building professionals, heritage consultants and your Ratepayers Association if you are any doubt as to the heritage status.