Saving Culture Heritage with Interior Design and Architectual Developments

Historic cities and buildings are one of the key elements that contribute to the UK’s cultural heritage. Stated in the document Power of Place, the historic environment is what generations of people have made of the places in which they lived. It is all about us. We are the trustees of that inheritance. It is in every sense a commonwealth (English Heritage, 2000, pg. 4). History defines who we are as individuals, if we lost all our history and heritage we would lose our sense of belonging, our sense of place and meaning as David Lowenthal discusses in his book, The Past is a Foreign Country, the surviving pasts most essential and pervasive benefit is to render the present familiar. It traces on the ground and in our minds let us make sense of the present. Without habit and the memory of past experience, no sight our sound would mean anything (Lowenthal, 2015, pg. 39). The past is an integral part of our individual identity, therefore a future without cultural identity would result in a built environment with no meaning, purpose or value. The familiarity of the built environment provides guidance and security as it is the memory of past experience as Lowenthal explains.

Architecture and interior design requires respect for memory and materials. For me this means that as designers we cannot avoid our built environment, we need to respond to it through the understanding of place, memory and materiality. The construction industry is responsible for a substantial amount of environmental pollution in the UK. In regards to this Bodach, Lang and Hamhaber discuss in their article Climate Responsive Building Design Strategies of Vernacular Architecture in Nepal that with the modernization of the construction sector the traditional knowledge that previously underpinned climate responsive vernacular designs are rapidly declining. Instead, modern building designs pervade, often paying little attention to local materials and traditional methods of construction, hence local climate conditions (Bodach, Lang and Hamhaber, 2014, pg. 1). Traditional buildings often used materials sourced from nearby areas as costs were cheaper and transport would be more accessible than from long distances, such as overseas, meaning that buildings were designed and built according to local materials sourced as well as being designed to local environment conditions. This method of material selection leads to significant energy savings as less energy is produced in the construction process. However, the traditional method of material selection in dwellings was affected by industrialization as this meant that manufactured materials began to dominate, as these were mass produced resulting in cheaper costs of construction. Architects and interior designers have a huge role to play in environmental sustainability, with the continuous increase in energy levels it is important that future buildings are designed to minimise the consumption of man-made, non-renewable materials.

Memory in architecture should be respected and celebrated meaning the heritage and material history of the site is essential to how we design and build in it. As Kolozali states in her article Materiality and Architecture: Potential Strategy for Achieving Sustainable Design, vernacular architecture exudes strong local content both in traditions, materiality, building skills and methods, and responds to local needs (Kolozali, 2016, pg. 2) it is important as designers that we promote vernacular architecture as this method of design celebrates cultural identity and uses improved methods of material selection and construction that result in lower energy consumptions, in which modern architecture seems to lack. The relationship between modern architecture and the local vernacular fascinates me; it has always seemed possible to me for modern design to compliment older forms with the use of the right materials (Alyn Griffiths, 2016). Here Bennetts Associates, designers of a contemporary country house featured on ‘Grand Designs: House of the Year’, discusses the importance of using the right materials to create the relationship between modern and vernacular architecture which is the exact point i would like to stress. As designers we need to respond to the landscape in ways that protect and preserve its heritage. This means that materials should be locally sourced in response to the area, followed by the design and construction adhering to the local vernacular but also incorporating modern elements to respond to modern building regulations and to facilitate new modern lifestyles. It involves understanding how buildings can fit into the context and landscape which can even enhance their setting.

The concept of ‘Zeitgeist’ architecture, a German phrase for ‘spirit of the times’, is a concept to be considered. This typology of architecture was adopted in the Futurist movement as a way to creating architecture suitable for new values and is representative of a changing society (Gwen Dolen, 2015). Architects such as Giuseppe Terragni, a key architect of the Post World War One period, successfully creates the relationship between vernacular, historic architecture and modern architecture as he looked to the architectural heritage of Italy and translated it into modern interpretation of values (Gwen Dolen, 2015). As architects and interior designers in the UK, a nation which holds substantial cultural heritage, this method should be considered as a way forward for future architecture to relate to the past and support new ways of life.

As architects we view nature as something that is pure and organic, mostly referring to natural materials such as timber and stone, anything that isn’t created by the human species. In rural environments our relationship with nature becomes more sensual than in urban settlements as we appreciate the fresh air we breathe. As a city dweller, nature is reduced to the local park, surrounded by traffic, and the selection of indoor houseplants to ensure we can breathe a fraction of clean air. Peter H. Kahn the author of the book Technological Nature: Adaptation of the Future, discusses his term for ‘environmental generational amnesia’. This meaning that each generation constructs a conception of what is environmentally normal based on the natural world encountered in childhood. With each generation the amount of environmental degradation increases, but each generation tends to take the degraded condition as the non degraded condition, as the normal experience (Peter H. Kahn, Jr., Rachel L. Severson, and Jolina H. Ruckert, 2009, pg. 41). Our relationship to nature as human beings has suffered through generations as our ideas of ‘normal experiences’ has changed, mainly due to industrialization and technology. As human beings we naturally require a connection to nature, yet we no longer feel the need for it as we have designed an environment with little or no connection at all. We no longer desire nature as it has been replaced by technology and our built environment. However, this has come at a cost. How we design our buildings mirrors and influences our physical and mental state meaning it is a crucial factor in contributing to our health and well being. Our intensification of industrialization and continuous use of energy causes significant environmental health problems due to factors such as poor air quality and lack of green space. According to the report of Quality of life in the UK 2017 carried out by the Office of National Statistics the mental well being of the population over the last 3 years has deteriorated (Tess Carter, 2017) in the UK with a deterioration in satisfaction of accomodation (Tess Carter, 2017). Furthermore, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 8 men in the UK suffer with mental health issues in the UK. (Heath Statistics, 2018). In 2008 the Countryside Council for Wales commissioned the Institute of Rural Health to undertake the project Natural Heritage: A Pathway to Health, a 12 month study on the impact of the natural environment on health and well being. This study proved that the natural environment is able to reduce levels of stress, speed recovery for patients and improve overall mood and self esteem (Davis. P, Deaville. J and Institute of Rural Health, 2008). Therefore it is vital that our environments are built to nurture us both physically and mentally by incorporating nature through the design of space, materiality and creating a strong relationship between interior and exterior thresholds, which will result in improved mental and physical health, thus improved well being.

Technology within architecture and interior design is a widespread interest due to the development of new materials and methods of building and designing. These developments are largely in response to our fast paced consumer society as we have become a society that demands the “newest” things. As technology leads the design industry, buildings are now largely constructed with new man made materials, that are mass produced and cheaper to use. The construction process also relies heavily on technology as this method is less labour intensive resulting in overall cost reductions. Technology is becoming more refined and cheaper to develop (Michael Cowan, 2018) as businesses are forced to continuously provide the latest and most efficient materials and methods of building due to our consumer needs. This has resulted in extreme advances of residential architecture as experiments have been carried out to build houses using 3D printers. In July earlier this year the BCC announced the first family ever to live in a 3D printed home. Michael Cowan states in his article that it is 20% cheaper than an identical construction using more traditional solutions (Michael Cowan, 2018). Having only taken 54 hours to print, followed by 4 months for added fittings, this method is clearly a substantial amount faster than if built using traditional methods. Consequently, using a 3D printer is cheaper in terms of overall cost of materials and labour than if built traditionally. These developments in architecture put our cultural heritage at risk as our fast paced consumer society seeks only the latest and most efficient advances in design disregarding traditional methods and natural materials that reflect our heritage and vernacular architecture.

Retro developments have been tried and tested in cases such as Poundbury, Prince Charles’s Village in Dorset, a town fabricated with nineteenth century Georgian style architecture. Although the aesthetics of Poundbury relate back to our cultural heritage, arguably it contradicts itself when it comes to the construction and living behaviours in the town. There has been many discussions over the “honesty” of Poundbury as it has been questioned to how faithful it lies to the local vernacular and natural materials it supposedly trusts to follow. However, this town suggests nothing more than dishonesty to the public as it portrays itself as a human doll house as Ben Pentreath, one of the architects that worked on Poundbury, stated “most of the stone is reconstituted, the traditional facades hide steel frames and blockwork walls, and much of the “metal work” is painted fibreglass.” (Oliver Wainwright, 2016). The design of the town focused on traditional methods of transport, walking, but unfortunately a study was carried out to find that the end of the first phase showed that car use was higher in Poundbury than in the surrounding rural district of West Dorset (Oliver Wainwright, 2016). In order for a development such as Poundbury to be more successful it needs to be honest in terms of materials and support our current and possible future behaviours of living.

We are nervous about the future therefore we relate back to history as we are familiar with it because we are knowledgeable that is works, however that hasn’t stopped architects predicting the future of design. Futuristic ideas have also been developed in regards to connecting to nature and creating sustainable ways of living, as Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has developed a concept to introduce natural ecosystems into cities with designs for “farmscrapers” made from piles of giant glass pebbles for a site in Shenzhen, China (Amy Frearson, 2013). The idea of this project is to produce more energy than it consumes with the aesthetics focusing on stacks of pebbles as he proposes a new type of urban habitat based on the rules of the natural world, housing entire communities (Amy Frearson, 2013). As urbanisation is estimated to continuously increase in the next few decades, our solutions focus on building upwards such as Callebaut’s concept, or building floating cities. These ideas have similar factors in that they focus on producing renewable energy and are designed to create sustainable living.

Nonetheless, if we focused our current efforts in proposing more naturally sourced local materials for our buildings and traditional methods of building and designing, instead of promoting the “latest” most “efficient” findings, we way help to improve consumerism by creating a slower paced consumer culture. The aim is to reduce environmental pollution, save energy and reconnect people with nature that can result in improved overall wellbeing and cultural heritage.