Day 30

'Ulster Museum Window Study' Pencil on Paper

Today's 'draw' is a study of one of the features on the exterior window of the Ulster Museum, the Museum itself was designed by James Cumming Wynne and built in 1929. It has been referred to as a 'brutalist' building due to the mainly due to the extension that was added from 1962-64, designed by Francis Pym, It's a fascinating building and I recently had the opportunity to attend a short film screening there. The film was about Owen Luder an architect that rose to prominence during the 60's with many of his buildings being designed in this 'brutalist' style, although his buildings were popular in the 60's many of them have now been torn down which was the focus of the film, and the talk that followed. There was something that he alluded to that I found particularly striking, that being that when he started out as an architect, the notion of an architect living to see the buildings they designed torn down in their lifetime was unheard of... However he has lived to see quite a few of his buildings torn down. The talk itself brought up many intriguing ideas and thoughts however this was the one that really stuck in my mind, that process of investing so much time into something seeing it taken to its resolution only to see it fall out of favour, deteriorate and eventually vanish. There was something else he said which sums up very well this notion of the lifespan of the buildings he designed which I am going to attempt to paraphrase,

" In the 60s my buildings were rewarded, in the 70s they were applauded, the 80s they were questioned, in the 90s they were ridiculed and in the 00s they are being demolished."

He raises quite a pertinent point that I think reflects very well on some of the regeneration and rebuilding that we see happen around us each day. As he alludes to the buildings themselves were once highly regarded, they were important, fashionable and necessary. It is then as this necessity changes that we re-evaluate and in many cases cast aside what we find we no longer need, the things that no longer conform to our expectations. It would seem that much of what is built is done so out of a necessity, in the moment it is deemed as crucial to meet what ever the need of that time is. Unfortunately it means that as time passes and the need changes people can become complacent and those buildings that gave the city it's identity, the places we've become accustomed to, those that were once integral now becomes an after thought. What this means and again something that Luder alluded to, is that in many cases something which although in a terrible state can still have a function or a viability and in the right hands could be re-invigorated, re-built and re-born. This is something that you can see happening all around you as many old buildings, many fantastic buildings are destroyed to make way for a new supermarket, car park or gaudy apartment block. I can understand if something is beyond repair but when there is the opportunity and with the right level of tact and elegance to preserve those aspects of the city it should be done. These buildings in a way have given the city its character, its persona and made it interesting and the worst thing is, as I implied before, that the buildings are an after thought. So the normal process as we experience it is that the building is replaced by a Starbucks, a Tesco express or a KFC, a few months later when we pass walked past we think didn't that place used to be there?

I'm going to leave you with a further thought from Owen Luder that I think sums up the whole thought process I've vaguely outlined, 

"It's about educating people through what it could be rather than what it is."