Visiting architect's strong plea for preservation

Press, 9 April 1980, Page 6

Visiting architect's strong plea for preservation

Now you See it, now you don’t. ' !

•■ Professor Roy Worskett, described as the man responsible for the restoration of the.VEnglish city of Bath, is amazed i-,that buildings in New Zealand can stand one day and become rubble the next. . . -

He said that he had been “staggered” walking about Christchurch to see that the New Zealand equivalent of medieval and Georgian buildings. were not protected by law.

As the town architect of Bath, Professor Worskett has been invited to New Zealand by the Historic Places Trust to speak at a three-day symposium on “new life for old buildings,” to be held at Wellington on April 14, 15, and 16.

- Bath has a population of 85,000, and 5000 of the town’s buildings are i protected by law. Two-thirds of the eighteenth-century Georgian town has been listed as “protected” by the British Government. Until 1974 some old buildings in Bath had been de-: stroyed and “appalling” new buildings erected. Residents whipped up national interest in the plight of Bath, and several officers of the town council — one of whom was Professor Worskett, —- decided to put more housing : money into rehabilitating old | houses instead of building' new ones.

People in Bath have to look after their old properties and guard their character, because new building is not permitted and any alterations have to be approved by the council. * S:?, Professor Worskett sees this as one way of stopping the degeneration of' old parts of Christchurch, such as the area between Springfield Road and Papanui Road, where many big, old houses have been converted into flats and the gardens dug up.

He said that it was essent- , ial for Christchurch to adhere i rigidly to the ideal of a green belt round the city. Professor Worskett believes that old buildings in the city centre should have a variety of uses instead of just one. He is critical of new highrise office blocks that have only one function and which close at the end of the working day. Such buildings a. s the Arts Centre help. prevent vandalism and burglary by keeping the city streets alive. Old buildings could not be replaced and replicas became cultural disasters. because they gave places a Disneyish feel, Professor Worskett said.: The problem existed throughout the world, where cities were changing and losing. their identity, with the end result that they would all look the same. ? ■

Satellite towns had been tried in Britain but Prpfes-

sor Worskett said that they tended, to attract only skilled and professional; people because the new factories used new technology.

The unskilled left behind made up the new urban poor and neither the old towns nor the new ones worked. The new towns became stereotypes with no character.

New Zealand needed national legislation to identify and protect old buildings, he said. A British city of Christchurch’s size would have three full-time officers responsible for granting money for, and inspecting old buildings. They would be paid by the Government and would work for the architecture and town-planning department of the city council. In New Zealand architecture and townplanning came under the engineer’s department in the city council, and there was no full - time officer responsible for old buildings.

Conservation in Britain was on a par with defence in the eyes of the Government and the public, said Professor Worskett.

Advertising was severely limited, and no neon signs were allowed in Bath. Advertising in Christchurch was a disgrace. Professor Worskett said that it would be described in Britain as a “subtopian nightmare”- because the

streets had become so cluttered with it.

Earthquake risks did not create a problem in Britain, but Professor Worskett said that -■■'structurally unsound buildings often had their facades propped up or built up while the- inside was pulled out and rebuilt, after which the facade and inside were rejoined. This was a solution which could be applied to the old Normal School, if a developer could be found with, the money to do it. Ideally, he said, local groups would make submissions to the central Government about what they wanted done with old buildings in their area. The Government

would have the final say and allocate the money, because local groups tended to get too emotionally involved. In Britain $l6 million was granted annually to individual property owners as help towards restoring their historic properties. None was given in New Zealand. Underneath his office in Bath, Professor Worskett has a study centre that is used for showing school pupils how planning and environment decisions ■ are reached. Professor Worskett hopes that the centre will help potential voters make sensible choices about the direction that their environment will take.