Build on the past
Sir: Simon Thurley (Britain is being demolished', 17 November) calls us to think again before politicians, short-term financiers and architects repeat all the mistakes we made after the war. I well remember as a student in the 1950s being exhorted by duffle-coated and starry-eyed tutors to 'change the face of Britain'. Sadly, we have. And still we have not learnt the lesson.
Simon Thurley asks 'will we get anything better than we did in the 1960s and '70s?' and, 'Will old and new be blended successfully to make beautiful places?' It isn't really a question of style or of consciously making a beautiful place. A Modernist building from its conception to its demise and beyond is an environmental disaster. Even before it leaves the drawing-board an inordinate amount of fossil fuel is consumed in the manufacture of its materials: steel, concrete, glass slabs and plastic. During its short life of 40 years or so it consumes further excessive quantities of energy in order to function — air-conditioning, lifts etc., and finally after its demise it cannot be recycled, so more landfill sites are needed for its burial. The whole process is then repeated to last another 40 years.
No, we will not get anything better until we admit that modern materials and methods of construction — though impressive like cars or fridges of the latest design — are not suitable for constructing buildings which last, which don't use up the resources of the earth and which are not part of the throwaway mentality of our age.
There was a time before the discovery of coal, oil and gas when there was only one way to build well. Buildings had solid brick and stone walls and timber pitched roofs covered in slate or tile. They made up the entire fabric of Rome, Paris, 18th-century London, Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge, to name but a few. They remain as silent witnesses today.
Is it too late to call architects and builders to learn from the way these cities were constructed and have the humility to do likewise?
Quinlan Teny Colchester
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