CHINON 2023- Historic Preservation in the Heart of France

Restoration/preservation of the 13th-Century Château de La Mothe Chandeniers is being undertaken by Carsten Hanssen, the Continental Europe event organiser.   Photo credit: R D Reber

When the AIA Continental Europe Chapter selected 5-9 October for their Fall 2023 conference in Chinon, France, they surely didn’t realise that the only train line running to the town would be closed that week for repairs!  Fortunately, the hour-long journey by rail replacement bus was through some beautiful oak forests in the Loire Valley, and the approximately 45 attendees got to town in time for Thursday night’s opening reception, which was held in the historic Hôtel Bodard.

The theme of this year’s conference was Historic Preservation, and each day began at the Hôtel Bodard, which was built as a chapel in 1365, then converted to a girls’ school after the French Revolution.  The building was completely restored by AIA CE member Carsten Hanssen – the event organiser - who has recently established it as a regional conference and history centre.

First on the agenda was a presentation on the history and urban design of Chinon, which in the Middle Ages was the capital of several French and English kings, the latter including Henry II and Richard the Lionheart.  Half-timber houses from the 14th and 15th Centuries are found in every street, while the grander buildings are constructed predominantly from the local tufa limestone.

Rue Voltaire and Church St Maurice, Chinon. 

Expert guides then conducted a walking tour of the town, highlighting the Jeu de Paume tennis court (1587), one of the few remaining original tennis courts in Europe; the Collegiate Church of St-Mexme (1000); the Church of St-Maurice (12th Century); and the 11th-Century Château de Chinon, perched high on a rocky outcrop above the town.  In 1429, the château (castle) was the site of the famous meeting between Joan of Arc and the future King Charles VII of France.

There were presentations back at the Hôtel Bodard on Heritage BIM and on the ambitious restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.  A wine tasting followed at Les Caves Plouzeau, a wine cellar located deep inside the hill upon which the castle is built.

Saturday morning’s excursions were to two restoration/preservation projects outside Chinon being undertaken by Carsten Hanssen.  The 13th-Century Château de La Mothe Chandeniers became famous for parties in the 1630s, but was destroyed by a boiler explosion and fire in 1937. Since then, it has become overgrown by forest vegetation.  The plan is for the château to become a local history centre, while remaining mostly as a ruin.

The Fortress of Berrye was altered drastically after the French Revolution, but the chapel, gatehouse and hall are still very impressive, and a venture deep into the adjacent tufa quarry was very useful for gaining a technical understanding of the many stone structures in the Loire Valley.  After lunch, there was a guided tour of Fontevraud Abbey, an immense medieval religious complex where the aforementioned English kings are buried, along with Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Saturday night’s gala dinner at Les Caves Painctes, another wine cellar buried deep under Chinon, began with a tasting of Loire Valley wines.  An elegant dinner ensued, during which Chapter officers presented several awards.

The Château d’Azay-le-Rideau. 

The third full day of the conference kicked off with a presentation on the history of stained glass by Frédéric Pivet, one of the leading stained glass restorers in Europe.  It was followed by a guided tour of the Château d’Azay-le-Rideau (1518), surrounded by a picturesque moat and one of the foremost examples of early French Renaissance architecture.

In the afternoon, an excursion to the city of Tours began with a visit to Jean Nouvel’s Vinci International Convention Centre (1993).  The tour was led by Frédérique Monjanel, who 30 years ago was the building’s project architect.  The group was then shown around Tours Cathedral by French Historic Buildings architect Regis Berge.  Almost everyone managed to make the dizzying climb all the way to the attic, where they were impressed and fascinated by the Cathedral’s timber roof structure.

About 20 participants stayed on for Monday’s “Extension Day” trip to Asselin’s door-and-window workshop in Thouars, where the company has worked on some of the most high-profile restoration projects in the world, including the newly opened Hôtel de la Marine in Paris.  At their timber-framing workshop nearby, Asselin treated the group to a delicious lunch, while showing how they are recreating the spire of Paris’s Notre-Dame Cathedral.  The day’s activities concluded with an afternoon tour of the Château d’Oiron (1538), a prime example of French Renaissance architecture, which today incorporates contemporary art installations. 

AIA Continental Europe’s next big meeting will take place in Fall 2024 in Sofia, Bulgaria.  A shorter mid-year conference is also being planned for Spring 2024 in Geneva and Annecy.

All photos by R. D. Reber, AIA

Written by R. D. Reber, AIA

Noel Hill Award – In The Making

In The Making is a collective group of designers who, faced with the lack of part 1 jobs during the pandemic, initiated their own projects. Our experience transformed a depressing job hunt to a year full of hands-on learning, friendship, community building and the most professional dive-in. We discovered a disconnect between our theoretical learning and practise regarding ethical community engagement. ‘‘What is co-design?’’ and ‘‘how can it be practised ethically?’’ quickly became our focus, with the desire to explore these questions through hands-on, messy and creative learning. We are excited to have the opportunity to share with you our journey since receiving the Noel Hill award.

The Big Noise project was the beginning of our inquiry into the potential for co-design and self-build to lead to more resilient communities with a stronger connection to place. We began in Spring 2021 with interviews and a publication of advice from experts practising co-design across architecture, service design and art. This culminated in a 3 week live build of an open reclaimed wooden structure that offered resting and playing opportunities. We designed and built alongside the 8-12 year old musicians at Big Noise's summer school. The build resulted in a renewed outdoor space which the younger people felt an ownership of. With plenty of sunshine and ice cream this was an experience both we and the Big Noise musicians both reflect fondly on.

Our aim for the funding we received from AIA was to return to site and invest more into the relationships we’d built. However, by the summer of 2022, Big Noise moved to a new building. In an evaluative feedback session we learned that the outdoor space had become an important therapeutic space given that the structure provided places to hide, space to move and be loud. Additionally, the space had become respected by the surrounding residents, who historically had thrown litter over the wall. The staff were confident in its robustness even in Glasgow's typically dramatic weather and the project set in motion a more interdisciplinary approach to summer schools. The building is held by Govanhill Housing Association and is waiting refurbishments for a new tenant, who we hope will make use of the build.

Following our studies at the Mackintosh Schools of Architecture (MSA) we reflected on what we had learnt from our self-initiated project. We wanted to share some critical reflections with our community of students. We feel that approaches to community engagement need to develop across practice, education and research simultaneously reinforcing each other to make real change in the industry. Noticing the gaps in our education, we set out to understand how ethical community engagement could be taught as part of the architectural curriculum.

This resulted in In The Making hosting the first ever MSA Friday lecture in a workshop format. We used this to explore the difficulties and benefits of trying to responsibly involve communities in student work; what architecture students can offer the city that they’re part of and how they can relinquish self determined ‘design control’ through valuing other ways of working and different forms of knowledge. The feedback from students and tutors was hugely positive and both hope to incorporate workshops into future lectures, inspiring a change in the ways practitioners typically share their work to students.

Following this, we led a two-day hybrid workshop with participants from GSA Forres Campus, the University of Lapland and MSA to co-design a Sheiling that would be built in Forres by students. With a focus on non-human agency and care, the project aims to build a collaborative international network of place-based practitioners with a particular interest in the cultural heritage of food.

The workshops encouraged 20+ students to embrace a design process based on relationship-building across disciplines and genuine collaboration. We challenged the students to embrace creative exploration over resolved design outcomes and they were energised by this flexible and empowering multi-disciplinary approach. However, there were difficulties encountered when offering non-traditional learning experiences in a traditional institution. Classic constraints of time, budget and scope, as well as restrictive thinking. Restrictive in terms of ego, fear of failure and unwillingness to relinquish control. The project will be continued in November 2023.

Currently, we are reflecting on what we wish to develop and pursue next. With each project we are getting closer to understanding our interests, motivations and practice. We plan to continue to ‘throw ourselves into the deep-end’, trusting it will shape us for the better. We believe we have something valuable to offer, questions to ask and ideas to test. We’re excited to tap further into the vibrant multidisciplinary communities that exist within Glasgow, connecting and learning from those who are practising radical ways of working and ethically engaging with underrepresented groups.

We would very much like to thank AIA for the Noel Hill Award. Winning has been hugely valuable and has given us confidence and energy to keep pursuing our research and evolving practice.

Written by: Previous Noel Hill Winners

Super Saturday / A Glorious Day in Canterbury

Canterbury Cathedral and the AIA UK Explorers.  Photo credit: ‘Friendly Bystander’

AIA UK ‘Super Saturdays’ are back!  More than 20 AIA UK members and guests visited Canterbury on 23 Sep 2023 for a day of lectures, explorations and socialising.  Not having experienced a Super Saturday in recent years, many of you might well ask, ‘What is a Super Saturday, what is all the fuss about’?

Wikipedia claims the term Super Saturday – or Panic Saturday for some - originated in the US to mark the last Saturday before Christmas as a major revenue day for retailers.  But the term is now widely used for any Saturday with a number of related events or competitions.

For the AIA UK Chapter, the term was first used in 2005 when past AIA UK President, Kevin Flanagan, introduced the concept of a series of themed Saturday lectures.  In his case, the first Super Saturday investigated the problem of increasing CO2 emissions and temperature change. 

Although successful, other event formats - such as the Founding Lecture Series, City Excursions, Virtual Tours - took precedence and Super Saturdays were inadvertently dropped.  Then, in 2018, another past AIA UK President, Alex Miller, responded to members’ requests to maximise weekend learning opportunities in a series of technical lectures on green issues, including a copious lunch and the added attraction of an exceptional walking tour.  

The finishing touch to make AIA UK Super Saturdays extra special was added in 2019 when Mark Breeze combined his series of sustainability lectures, extensive catering and guided tours with an excursion to Cambridge.  

Former AIA UK President and resident of Canterbury, Brianne Hamilton, started planning for this year’s Super Saturday centred around Canterbury Cathedral in 2020, only to be thwarted by covid shutdowns.  As it happened, this year’s Super Saturday proved the three year wait was worth it.

The program started with an introduction by Jonathan Deeming, Partner at the architectural practice of Purcell and Surveyor to the Fabric of Canterbury Cathedral, who is responsible for the multiple structures in the UNESCO World Heritage cathedral precinct.  He is the latest in a lengthy list of distinguished architect/surveyors who have overseen the whole gamut of architectural concerns – new buildings, demolitions, maintenance and reconstructions – over the past 1,400 years.   Deeming concentrated on the need to follow the differing rationale and requirements of conservation, restoration and preservation interventions in this modern age.

He explained in depth his past 10 year’s accomplishments, ranging  from masonry and clerestory glazing repairs to redesign of the west tower.  In particular, he addressed the critical issue of drainage – a lingering problem from medieval times - and the latest re-roofing of the nave.

He left his audience with an awareness that an ancient building must be treated as an organic whole, with delicate interventions only made under the historic building mantra, ‘as much as necessary, as little as possible’.

Are those serious ceiling cracks or just signs of a building slowly easing its way into late middle age?  Not to worry, such cracks are being monitored...  Photo credit: B Oknyansky

The highlight of the day was exploring the far reaches of Cathedral itself.  A seemingly infinite climb up a narrow, circular Norman stairway led to the top of the nave and enabled a closeup view of the roof and building fabric.

Super Saturday Competition: Victorian roof interventions (iron straps)  v. Medieval originals (wooden pegs). Photo credit: L King 

After the climb to the top, the advice to the ‘explorers’ was, ‘don’t bend over the edge; don’t drop anything’!  Still, the temptation to take pictures on the day was overwhelming – looking down on the Cathedral in all its glory, looking up to the heights just visited. Photo credit: L King

After lunch, Lian Harter - also from the architectural practice of Purcell – took the group through the recent transformation of the Christ Church Gate from the near ruin documented in an early photograph to the majestic entrance to the cathedral precinct today.  There is absolutely no way this could be considered a mere plaster and paint job.  Through a series of slides, Harter showed the meticulous research required to direct the restoration of the Gate while at the same time abiding by the strictest requirements of modern conservation, restoration and preservation.

Lian Harter displayed multiple slides, each one summarising an aspect of her research.  Photo credits: (top, then clockwise) K Storr, L King, Purcell Archive Photo

One of the challenges of 21st century Canterbury is to maintain the city’s historic character at the same time as it takes on modern developments that often involve delicate architectural interventions to listed buildings and placing new buildings in sensitive contexts.  Saturday’s next speaker was Cindy Walters, a Founder and Director of Walters & Cohen Architects.  Walters’ involvement started in 2014 with a masterplan and space audit for Canterbury’s King’s School and continues to this day with a series of new buildings and renovations.  

It was a special treat to be taken by Walters beyond the tourist-bound precinct, behind the Cathedral, around the cloisters, across the King’s School and through the back gate to see Walter & Cohen projects on the day’s final walking tour. Photo credits: M Lischer / B Oknyansky

On the outskirts of Canterbury, the group reached Saturday’s final two projects -  Walther & Cohen’s new International College, located conveniently next door to the Malthouse Theatre, a 2019 RIBA award winning project by Tim Ronalds Architects    

The tour of the Theatre – an adapted reuse of an old maltings - was led by Project Architect, Lucy Thomas.  She gave a comprehensive review of the philosophy behind the project and explained how design decisions were often made on the spot - the choice of materials, the rough and ready detailing, the unobtrusive entry – all leading to the project’s overall freshness. 

The complex Malthouse project was an exciting climax to a long, rewarding day.  Well done Super Saturday!  It can only be hoped the event format will catch on and there will be more such events in coming years.

The industrial frontage to the Theatre belied the drama created within it. Photo credits: (top, then clockwise) K Storr, B Oknyansky, K Storr

Photos by L King, M Lischer, B Oknyansky, K Storr

Photo credit: B Oknyansky AIA

Written by L D King, AIA

AIA UK SUSTAINABILITY SERIES - ULTRA-SUSTAINABLE RETROFITTING: THE ENTOPIA BUILDING, CAMBRIDGE

On 21st September 2023 we continued our ongoing series of sustainability events with an online talk on the 'ultra-sustainable' retrofit of The Entopia Building, located in a local conservation area in the historic Cambridge city centre, UK.  The principal architect Wendy Bishop (Associate at Architype) and the sustainability lead Peter Kelly (Director for Sustainable Operations at ISG) told the story of how the project came into being, from the early concept stages right through to the on-going post occupancy evaluation, explaining how Entopia set new standards in retrofit as an internationally-leading, fabric-first, sustainable retrofit of a 1930s, five-storey concrete frame structure.   

The recording of the talk, along with the online quiz so you can receive 1 HSW LU credit for watching it, can be found HERE.

Virtual Building Tour – Infinitus Plaza by Zaha Hadid Architects

Photo credit: Liang Xue

The 2023 series of the AIA UK Chapter’s “Building Tours” continued on 31 July as we welcomed back Zaha Hadid Architects’ (ZHA) designer, Satoshi Ohashi, who had also presented Leeza SOHO to the AIA UK back in April 2021.  This time he took us on an insightful virtual tour of Infinitus Plaza in Guangzhou, China. 

Infinitus is arranged around central atria and courtyards, echoing the symbol for infinity “∞”.  The design creates a variety of shared indoor and outdoor spaces that builds a strong sense of community  or ‘Si Li Ji Ren’, which means “considering collective benefits before acting”, and also defines Infinitus’ corporate culture.  Infinitus Plaza, situated within Guangzhou’s subtropical monsoon climate, has been designed and constructed to LEED Gold certification and to the equivalent 3-Stars of China’s Green Building Program.

In his remarks, Satoshi discussed ZHA’s long standing relationship with Chinese building developers, which has significantly expanded over the past decade. Given its success on various projects in China, ZHA has developed a deep professional relationship with a variety of developers and private clients that, in Satoshi’s opinion, has been the fundamental ingredient in being able to build iconic architecture. 

Satoshi highlighted the site’s fundamental physical constraint - a site bisected by an underground subway rail line. The building was divided into two unequal masses to accommodate the position of the rail line below. The two buildings are physically connected by two bridges which provide connectivity and usable space for fitness and events. Their presence provides a sculptural form in the physical shape of a mobius strip. Each building is highlighted by an atrium providing biophilic, private and public spaces including a civic space with connectivity to Guangzhou’s transport network.

The deliberate positioning of the building mass, or plates, straddling the “underground,” coupled with the bridges facilitating connectivity provides a unique relationship and a three-dimension composition. It’s sculptural “second skin” allows a significant amount of natural light to permeate through the external spaces and into the office spaces. The second skin also assists in solar shading of the buildings, as well as contributing to its unique geometry and relationship between the buildings. The double-insulated, low-e glazing, internal skin is cost effective and contributes to a comfortable indoor temperature year round.  

Photo credit: Ach20

Satoshi was deliberate in his detailed insights with respect to the development of the project’s sustainable design elements. He emphasised Infinitus’ double-insulated, stick built, glass-curtain wall system that provided an inexpensive way to thermally enclose the building. These features enabled the more complicated geometry of the second skin to not only present a dynamic elevation but assist in creating an efficient environmental solar control system, where necessary. Annual solar irradiation analysis determined the width of the outdoor terraces to self-shade the building. The atrium also has a built-in system for regulating and filtering in-coming air. The advanced 3D Building Information Modelling (BIM) management system monitors environmental controls and drives energy efficiencies. 

The project’s system of rainwater collection, filtration, and reuse also supplies micro-irrigation to the surrounding landscaping. The gardens on the roof of the 3rd, 7th, and 8th floors grow herbs and plants native to the region and are naturally irrigated. These outdoor communal areas are linked together with the rooftop jogging track and walking paths. All these unique amenities contribute to building of a sense of community - “considering collective benefits before acting.”    As a result of the combination of innovative and proven technologies to reduce energy consumption and emissions, Infinitus has earned a variety of sustainable credentials.

As in a majority of ZHA’s buildings with the such complex geometries, Zaha Hadid Architects exhibits its position at the forefront of 3D BIM applications - not only in design, but also in construction management and building operations. During the tour, Sartoshi showed the participants how the use of technology enabled ZHA to optimise the complex façade geometries of the external solar control cladding, resulting in the efficient construction of the building on time and within budget.  

ZHA, in a similar fashion to Leeza SOHO, took a building site that may have been otherwise compromised due to the need to incorporate an operating subway tunnel and manipulated building geometry to its advantage.  The result is a testament to the firm’s inventive design approach and powerful use of technology. 

The AIA UK Chapter continues to host its virtual building tour series for the 2023 season based on the Winners of AIA UK 2022 Excellence in Design Awards. This series offers architects and interested parties the opportunity to visit notable buildings that have particular design interests in the UK and abroad. Follow this link for further information to participate in the next tour of Le Dome Winery by Foster + Partners on 07 September 2023. 

Written by Gregory Fonseca, AIA

Virtual Building Tour – Alder Centre

Photo credit: Infinite 3D

The AIA UK Chapter’s Building Tours Series resumed in 2023 on 11 May with a virtual visit to the award-winning Alder Centre, part of the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital campus in Liverpool.  The Alder Centre was the winner of the 2022 AIA Design Excellence Award for a small project.  This virtual tour was an inspirational one based not only on the operational purpose of the building but also the lead architect’s deep personal connection to the project.

Paul Monaghan, Executive Director at Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM), the RIBA Stirling Prize winning architecture practice, led an engaging discussion of the project. The Alder Centre is a place of healing for bereaved parents and/or anyone affected by the death of a child. As a dedicated place for people to meet, talk, and access specialist counselling services, it is the home of a national child bereavement helpline and counselling services for hospital staff and possibly the only one of its kind in England. The tour provided a poignant moment for participants when we discovered that Paul had grown up on Alder Street. That he would later develop a building, celebrated as much for its design as for its purpose, which would have such a profound impact on the people it serves within his home community, was heartwarming.

In his tour remarks, Paul revealed that for AHMM’s submission they produced a short video which highlighted the key design elements of their proposal and set the video to the soundtrack of ‘You’ll Be In My Heart’ by Phil Collins. Furthermore, the Alder Centre design competition’s theme was based around 'The Secret Garden', as inspired by the Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel. Themes around loss and childhood run deep through both the novel and the song lyrics. Paul believed making the emotional connection between the Centre’s purpose through their design choices and their musical selections made all the difference in AHMM’s appointment and may have been the winning factor in securing the commission.

The design concept offers a series of intimate spaces that relate to individual counselling rooms, which have been specifically designed to maintain privacy for users, with access to “secret gardens.” Two larger garden spaces are linked with the more public, communal parts of the building. The simple plan provides views and access from all occupied spaces to private gardens, providing a contemplative environment for counselling to assist in the bereavement process.

Photo credit: AHMM

Although the buildings are based on simple forms, they are beautifully crafted and proportioned. A simple plan of a series of varying-sized spaces yields volumes of varying dimensions to accommodate diverse functions from a public kitchen and living quarters to private or family counselling. Each volume is capped by a pyramidal-pitched roof. Using the same angle results in height and volume variations due to the size of the footprint being covered. The pyramidal tops were further angled cut and positioned to capture natural light and assist with natural ventilation, helping create variations in the overall form.

Designed primarily with brick, glass and clay tiles, the combined simplicity of the materials and volumetric forms results in a stunning composition.  A similar attitude was adopted in the interiors.  Exposed brick, glass, and the internal expression of the pyramidal roofs, drenched by natural light from the angled skylights, defines each room.  The collective design of volume space and visuals, as well as the physical connections from each space to the series of “secret gardens,” creates a calming environment where individuals and families can manage their emotions.

The AIA UK Chapter will continue to host a combination of live and virtual buildings tours throughout the year, offering architects the opportunity to visit notable buildings that have particular design interests in the UK and abroad.

Written by Gregory Fonseca, AIA