tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/uk-architecture-45450/articlesUK architecture – The Conversation2023-07-05T15:45:23Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2088882023-07-05T15:45:23Z2023-07-05T15:45:23ZWhy banks once flocked to Canary Wharf’s high-tech superstructures, but are now starting to return to the City<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535727/original/file-20230705-25-m26a2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C5%2C3951%2C2757&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canary Wharf, London.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/canary-wharf-business-banking-area-sunset-1498895684">IR Stone/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>HSBC is moving its UK headquarters <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/26/hsbc-to-move-to-smaller-city-of-london-headquarters-due-to-hybrid-working">from Canary Wharf back into the City of London</a> as it adjusts to the impact of hybrid work on its office space needs. </p>
<p>This could signal the reverse of the 1990s trend of banks moving out of the City in search of buildings more suited to modern banking. The City’s “Square Mile” financial district is considered the historical centre of British banking. But space and planning restrictions on building expansions made a move to Canary Wharf very appealing as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23286646">banks navigated the new world of electronic trading</a>, starting in the 1980s.</p>
<p>HSBC’s predecessor, Midland Bank, opened grand offices at 27 Poultry, next to the Bank of England, in 1924. But after its takeover by HSBC in 1992, this office was vacated for more modern premises on Lower Thames Street. </p>
<p>A subsequent move by HSBC to Canary Wharf in 2002 came more than a decade after the first tenants moved to this new site – Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, First Boston and Citigroup. Barclays was the last major UK retail bank to leave the City’s Lombard Street for Canary Wharf in 2005. </p>
<p>HSBC is now heading back to the City 21 years later, possibly at the forefront of another wave of migration, as UK-based banks adjust to the world of hybrid working practices. If bank staff are working from home for two or three days in a week, space is less crucial. Indeed, <a href="https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/uk-office-occupancy-hits-highest-150826953.html">office vacancies in London are rising</a>, particularly in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jul/05/it-has-lost-its-appeal-canary-wharf-faces-an-uncertain-future">Canary Wharf</a>. The City of London, although never down and out, appears to be in ascendance again. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/enterprise-and-society/article/quiet-victory-national-provincial-gibson-hall-and-the-switch-from-comprehensive-redevelopment-to-urban-preservation-in-1960s-london/DA166BDF81D6AE1B2C5433543281DCE7">previous research</a> into the flight of banks to Canary Wharf showed it was driven by conservation movements that aimed to preserve the City’s historical buildings. In particular, National Provincial Bank (later NatWest) wanted to transform its headquarters in the 1960s from a prestigious Victorian building into a skyscraper fit for modern banking.</p>
<h2>Fighting to modernise</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Exterior-view-of-Gibson-Hall-Illustrated-London-News-1866_fig4_337788669">Gibson Hall</a>, National Provincial Bank’s original home in the City of London, was built in 1865 and served as the bank’s headquarters for over a century. Victorian banks preferred large, grand, highly-decorated buildings in prime locations for their head offices. They wanted to project wealth, reliability, stability and success. In 1894, the German travel writer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Baedeker">Karl Baedeker</a>, wrote in his <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/London_und_Umgebungen.html?id=3itwcES-3UMC&redir_esc=y">guidebook to London</a> that Gibson Hall was a “beautiful, in Byzantine-Roman style, richly decorated hall with polished granite columns and polychromatic decoration”.</p>
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<img alt="An ornate stone building with arched door and window, topped by statues. Skyscrapers in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535779/original/file-20230705-9468-m26a2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535779/original/file-20230705-9468-m26a2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535779/original/file-20230705-9468-m26a2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535779/original/file-20230705-9468-m26a2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535779/original/file-20230705-9468-m26a2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535779/original/file-20230705-9468-m26a2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535779/original/file-20230705-9468-m26a2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Gibson Hall, Threadneedle Street, London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gibson-hall-sunset-1862-directors-national-169006781">Kiev.Victor/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>However, by the 1960s, the Victorian style of Gibson Hall appeared old-fashioned, while the building itself had become ill-suited to modern banking methods. Telephones and computers required wiring and cables that the building had not been built to accommodate. Also, when Gibson Hall was first constructed, just 100 employees worked in the London office. By 1964, this figure had grown to 1,866, excluding non-clerical staff, according to information we found in the NatWest Group archives.</p>
<p>So, National Provincial’s leaders thought replacing Gibson Hall with a new skyscraper would better reflect the needs, size and status of a large and growing modern bank. It could also escape the constraints of an historic building that was no longer fit for purpose.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for National Provincial, <a href="https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/18794/">a tide of preservation sentiment</a> was building throughout Britain by the 1960s. In 1964, when a public enquiry was held into the demolition of Gibson Hall, our archival research shows attitudes were firmly in favour of preservation of historic buildings.</p>
<p>The preservation movement was fuelled by the demolitions of several London landmarks in the early 1960s, including <a href="https://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/city-of-london-coal-exchange">the Coal Exchange</a> in Lower Thames Street and the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/nov/07/euston-arch-rail-london-demolished-1961">Euston Arch</a>” entrance to Euston station, both Grade II listed. This <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/A_Broken_Wave.html?id=24uwAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">provoked public outcry</a>. A preservation order placed on Gibson Hall in 1964 blocked National Provincial from demolishing its Victorian home to replace it with a modern tower block.</p>
<h2>Out with the old</h2>
<p>Many banks had offices and branches in Victorian or Edwardian buildings at this time. The preservation order placed on Gibson Hall gave a clear signal that such buildings should stand. By the 1980s there was still a powerful conservation lobby. </p>
<p>But City firms’ need to expand and update their office space took on a new urgency following financial deregulation, known as the “Big Bang”, in 1986. As well as replacing face-to-face share dealing with <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37751599">electronic trading</a>, the reforms allowed more banks to start trading, not just advise investors.</p>
<p>In addition to computers, banks now wanted large floor spaces for their traders. They needed more equipment and connections for computers and air conditioning to stop the tech overheating. It was more cost-efficient to house this activity in an open-plan environment where cables could be run through the space more easily. Ventilation systems would also operate better in open areas versus small, individual offices.</p>
<p>The Canary Wharf development on London’s Isle of Dogs seemed to offer everything the banks needed at this time. It had been <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203036464/property-masters-scott">designated as an Enterprise Zone</a>, which removed virtually all planning constraints. This allowed for the construction of a new financial hub unencumbered by the delays inherent in planning enquiries.</p>
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<img alt="Skyscraper with HSBC sign and logo, amid other skyscrapers, blue sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535731/original/file-20230705-28-p5ks5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535731/original/file-20230705-28-p5ks5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535731/original/file-20230705-28-p5ks5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535731/original/file-20230705-28-p5ks5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535731/original/file-20230705-28-p5ks5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535731/original/file-20230705-28-p5ks5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535731/original/file-20230705-28-p5ks5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">HSBC head office, Canary Wharf, London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chrispictures/Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Of course there were teething problems during the construction Canary Wharf – not least the impact of the 1989-92 property crash on <a href="https://realestate.wharton.upenn.edu/working-papers/the-crash-and-rebound-of-canary-wharf/">financing for the build</a>. But it eventually gave UK banks what they had wanted for so long: a free hand to build huge skyscrapers. These superstructures not only housed much-needed modern technology, they also served as a monument to their inhabitants’ economic power and prestige. </p>
<p>The movement of HSBC’s headquarters signals another potential shift for banks, but this time to smaller offices to accommodate changing working practices once again. While HSBC was not the first bank to move to Canary Wharf 30 years ago, other banks could follow its lead this time to head bank to the City as hybrid working affects these companies and their employees.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>British banks moved to Canary Wharf in search of space and modern facilities but hybrid working needs could drive banks back to the City of London’s smaller spaces.Lucy Newton, Professor in Business History, Henley Business School, University of ReadingPeter Scott, Professor of International Business History, University of ReadingVictoria Barnes, Reader in Commercial Law, Brunel University LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080902023-06-27T14:52:52Z2023-06-27T14:52:52ZHow the NHS’s original vision to design healthier hospitals fell into disrepair<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534381/original/file-20230627-21-xd13tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C2%2C1764%2C1114&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When St Helier Hospital in Carshalton opened, it was viewed as the last word in modernist design.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Student_Nurse-_Life_at_St_Helier_Hospital,_Carshalton,_Surrey,_1943_D13888.jpg">Imperial War Museum Archives via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Outpatients at St James’ Hospital feel better even before they see the doctor – thanks to a new note in hospital design. ‘Comfort while you wait’ is the new policy, and that means an informal atmosphere, extra comfy chairs, concealed lighting, heated cork floors, and an ultra-modern design throughout. No shades of depressing institutions here.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You might think this description comes from the glossy marketing material for one of today’s cutting-edge private hospitals. In fact, it’s from a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qygR9TwXHbU">1954 Pathé News clip</a> celebrating one of the earliest buildings designed for Britain’s fledgling National Health Service (NHS) – launched six years earlier on July 5, 1948.</p>
<p>What St James’ Hospital in Balham, south London, lacked in size, it made up for in ambition. The new central complex embodied the stated ideals of the NHS, to provide an equitable service for all citizens, free of charge and of the highest standard. The new buildings contained consulting rooms, staff offices and waiting rooms, and a children’s room that was lauded by the Pathé commentator:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the children’s room, the longer the youngsters have to wait, the better they like it. They can play as loudly as they like, for in their own room their chatter and high spirits can’t worry other patients … It’s no wonder that in this hospital, some of the children and their parents come a little early for their appointments on purpose!</p>
</blockquote>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qygR9TwXHbU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A tour of the newly opened St James’ Hospital in Balham (1954)</span></figcaption>
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<p>As we take stock of the NHS on the occasion of its 75th anniversary, most attention is focused on staff pay demands, lengthy waiting lists for treatment, and the intolerable pressures on staff during and beyond the pandemic. But the design and upkeep of NHS hospital buildings, and the impact these can have on the patients and staff who inhabit them, is another <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2023-02-21/patient-safety-at-risk-from-crumbling-nhs-hospitals-in-urgent-need-of-repair">pressing</a>, if less widely publicised, issue.</p>
<hr>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533674/original/file-20230623-7118-vgag2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533674/original/file-20230623-7118-vgag2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533674/original/file-20230623-7118-vgag2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533674/original/file-20230623-7118-vgag2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533674/original/file-20230623-7118-vgag2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533674/original/file-20230623-7118-vgag2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533674/original/file-20230623-7118-vgag2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>To mark the 75th anniversary of the launch of the NHS, we’ve commissioned <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/how-to-fix-the-nhs-140880?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UKNHSseries">a series of articles</a> addressing the biggest challenges the service now faces. We want to understand not only what needs to change, but the knock-on effects on other parts of this extraordinarily complex health system.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>I believe we can find answers to at least some of today’s health service problems by looking at the history of these buildings, and the shifting design priorities they reflect.</p>
<p>The story of St James’ Hospital is a case in point. Less than 40 years on from the proud launch of its new central complex, the entire hospital stood empty and ruinous – a symbol, perhaps, of the failed ambitions of the early NHS. The buildings were demolished in 1992, and the site was redeveloped for housing.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532864/original/file-20230620-25-e74oss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Overgrown and disused hospital building with graffiti" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532864/original/file-20230620-25-e74oss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532864/original/file-20230620-25-e74oss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532864/original/file-20230620-25-e74oss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532864/original/file-20230620-25-e74oss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532864/original/file-20230620-25-e74oss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532864/original/file-20230620-25-e74oss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532864/original/file-20230620-25-e74oss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St James’ Hospital outpatients department in 1991, prior to its demolition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Harriet Richardson Blakeman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Parts of this hospital are sinking</h2>
<p>Another south London hospital was in the news recently. “Patient safety at risk in crumbling hospital Boris Johnson promised to replace,” read a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/13/patient-safety-at-risk-in-crumbling-hospital-boris-johnson-promised-to-replace">headline in the Observer</a>, describing conditions in St Helier Hospital, Carshalton.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532895/original/file-20230620-24-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Crumbling hospital building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532895/original/file-20230620-24-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532895/original/file-20230620-24-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532895/original/file-20230620-24-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532895/original/file-20230620-24-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532895/original/file-20230620-24-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532895/original/file-20230620-24-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532895/original/file-20230620-24-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St Helier Hospital, Carshalton.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Harriet Richardson Blakeman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Helier_Hospital">St Helier was built</a> just before the outbreak of the second world war, constructed on reinforced concrete foundations with a steel-frame and brick infill, faced in white-painted cement render. At the time, it was regarded as the last word in up-to-date modernist design, with “accommodation of the highest class in any part of the world”.</p>
<p>Now, parts of this hospital are sinking. The basement floods, wards are sometimes forced to close, and the hospital has become “dilapidated and unpleasant”, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/13/where-are-the-tories-promised-40-new-hospitals-we-cannot-afford-to-wait-any-more">according to Ruth Charlton</a>, chief medical officer of Epsom & St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust. In a recent commentary, she wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our ageing estate looked awful even when I joined, and over the years it’s decayed further before my eyes. Healthcare standards are getting higher while our hospitals are sliding into even more disrepair … Only last week we had to close one of our wards because the lift wasn’t working.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nor is this an isolated case. In April, a <a href="https://twitter.com/doctor_oxford/status/1643894825182285827?s=20">tweet</a> by palliative care doctor and author Rachel Clarke showed “an actual interior corridor of a major NHS hospital”. The photograph looks like the bowels of a particularly unsavoury multi-storey carpark, yet the reflection in the mirror clearly shows it is an internal space. The paint is peeling, the damp so bad that a streak of green algae is running down the corner of the room.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1643894825182285827"}"></div></p>
<p>Along with such images of decay and dereliction, we have also seen images of egregious overcrowding over the past few years, as COVID-19 put extreme demands on NHS facilities that were already creaking badly. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jul/14/hospital-patients-being-treated-in-corridors-and-waiting-areas-says-rcn">Accounts</a> of patients being treated in corridors and even in <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/patients-treated-in-car-parks-as-a-e-crumbles-under-pressure-lnxqgd6nf">hospital car parks</a> continued last winter, even when the COVID threat had receded somewhat.</p>
<p>In January 2023, Alice Kenny, a junior sister at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, east London, who had been redesignated as a “corridor nurse”, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64226656">told the BBC</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We don’t train to give care in corridors. It is really not nice and if we were in [our patients’] shoes, we’d be really upset as well. We’re supposed to look after patients like we do our own family, and we’re not able to do that.</p>
</blockquote>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Interviews with staff forced to look after patients in corridors at Queen’s Hospital, Romford.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ideas and ideals of early NHS designs</h2>
<p>As the architectural history of the NHS is such a huge subject, I have mainly focused on Scotland where I live and can access the official records – some of which have only become available to researchers in recent years. This has provided fresh insights into the ideas and ideals behind the design of the first purpose-built hospitals built by the NHS.</p>
<p>The problems back then were not dissimilar to those faced today: old worn-out buildings, staff shortages, rising costs and economic austerity. Take Old Monkland Home in Coatbridge, to the east of Glasgow – one of the 3,000-or-so hospitals that were transferred to state ownership when the NHS came into being in July 1948. A review of this <a href="https://www.workhouses.org.uk/OldMonkland/">former poorhouse</a>’s facilities, published in a <a href="https://archive.org/details/b32179121_0005">national hospital survey</a> before the end of the second world war, was damning:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Old Monkland Home occupies a depressing site in Coatbridge. The hospital part now contains 69 beds, and there is also an asylum for milder types of lunatic … The impression is one of general neglect. The dining-room is very gloomy, the hospital is very little better than the main house, and the asylum block is totally unsuitable for patients of any kind. We are of the opinion that this institution is quite unsuitable for the care of the sick, and should be abandoned.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The NHS had inherited a patchwork of hospitals, predominantly over half-a-century old, that had been built to meet the medical needs of the time: sanatoria for tuberculosis, isolation hospitals for once-common infectious diseases such as measles and diphtheria, and cottage hospitals run by country GPs who carried out routine surgery, delivered local babies, set bones and treated wounds from accidents.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
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<p>There were also large urban workhouse infirmaries full of chronically ill elderly patients, huge mental hospitals, teaching hospitals, and convalescent homes. Funding to build and run them came from a wide range of sources, including public donations, church collections, the rates, government loans, and work-placed insurance schemes.</p>
<p>These buildings had been “built to last” 100 years or more (brick or stone buildings that were expensive to construct were only economically viable if they had a long lifespan). But they suffered from a lack of structural maintenance and redecoration during the war, and afterwards from the severe shortages of labour and materials.</p>
<p>The UK-wide survey of hospitals had been intended to inform post-war reconstruction and the development of a “<a href="https://wdc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/health/id/208/">national hospital service</a>”, which aimed to “ensure that every patient requiring hospital treatment could obtain it without delay in the hospital most suited to their needs”. In reality, it painted a picture of uneven distribution and poor facilities, with the worst of the buildings being the old workhouses:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Wigtownshire Home, Stranraer, has not undergone any appreciable change since it was built about 1850. The building is worn out and dreary … This is a very poor place, and is quite unsuitable for housing the sick or aged, or indeed for any other purpose.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the immediate post-war years, new housing was the most urgent requirement throughout Britain, along with new schools after the <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/themes/butler-act.htm#:%7E:text=The%20Education%20Act%20%2D%20or%20'Butler,into%20primary%20and%20secondary%20schools.">Butler Act of 1944</a> raised the school-leaving age to 15 (with a post-war baby boom to follow). Yet there was also a widespread consensus among the public that the current level of healthcare provision was no longer acceptable. A new type of hospital facility was needed to reflect the scientific advances of medicine and the aspirations of post-war Britain.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532893/original/file-20230620-29-veiebv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Aerial view of hospital complex on front of postcard with text" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532893/original/file-20230620-29-veiebv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532893/original/file-20230620-29-veiebv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532893/original/file-20230620-29-veiebv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532893/original/file-20230620-29-veiebv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532893/original/file-20230620-29-veiebv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532893/original/file-20230620-29-veiebv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532893/original/file-20230620-29-veiebv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A postcard extols the futuristic design of Vale of Leven, the NHS’s first new general hospital.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A five-star ‘hospital of the future’</h2>
<p>These aspirations found physical form in the <a href="https://historic-hospitals.com/2016/04/10/vale-of-leven-hospital-the-first-new-nhs-hospital-in-britain/">first new general hospital</a> built in Britain for the NHS, which <a href="https://www.facebook.com/savethevale/videos/aother-old-video-of-the-vale-hospital-thank-you-for-these/209682076082610/">opened</a> in Scotland in 1955 at Vale of Leven to the north-west of Glasgow. One of its most striking features were the wards, which were dramatically different from the traditional “Nightingale-style” open wards that offered no privacy to patients.</p>
<p>At Vale of Leven, the beds were grouped in bays separated by glazed screens. Ceiling heights were lower to create a more homely feel. The day room was furnished like a domestic sitting room, with comfortably upholstered armchairs. Windows were set low enough in the walls for patients to be able to see the grounds while lying in bed – and they also provided natural ventilation, allowing fresh air and the sound of birdsong to enter each ward.</p>
<p>Facilities for staff were an important consideration, as <a href="https://archive.org/details/sim_architect-building-news_1955-09-29_208_13/page/n35/mode/2up?q=%22Vale+of+leven+Hospital%22">the Architect & Building News</a> explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A nurse’s station is an L-shaped counter containing knee space, drawers, filing cabinets etc, with a dwarf glass screen to cut off draughts, record board and shaded reading light, and small cupboards behind in the storage wall. The station is raised on a low step so that, when sitting, the nurse has a view of her 13 beds and, in fact, is only 25 feet away from her farthest patient and is quickly conscious of any movement or disturbance. Signal lights from beds are placed so that they can be seen from either of two nurse’s stations in case one is temporarily unoccupied.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The subject of hospital design was now a hot topic among architects, health professionals and administrators alike – with an emphasis on the collaborative planning processes and research-led design that had evolved in more progressive architecture schools before the war. Schools such as the Architectural Association in London and Liverpool had developed a belief in social theory and managerial efficiency. Architects sought specialist advice on every aspect of the hospital, from the wards to catering and even laundries. As the regional architect for the South Eastern Regional Hospital Board wrote in 1951 about his new building schemes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It would be futile for medical science to progress and leave in its wake a dull, unimaginative architecture.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another reason for the extra care being taken over these new buildings was that, in the period of full employment in the 1950s and ‘60s, it was often proving difficult to attract enough hospital staff. The shortage of nurses, traditionally a female role, was especially acute because the rate of pay was lower than for many office jobs in the private sector – jobs that also offered shorter hours and fewer pressures than nursing.</p>
<p>To entice new recruits and enhance retainment levels, local management boards pushed hard to get well-appointed nurses’ homes built and to provide generous staff social and recreational facilities – from tennis courts to swimming pools, coffee bars to halls for cinema shows and dances.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RMlFYzcJS78?wmode=transparent&start=2" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An introduction to High Wycombe General Hospital: ‘Medical science, 1967-style’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At this time, the opening of a new hospital was a newsworthy event, featured in the architectural and medical press, national and local newspapers, and in newsreels. The opening of the new High Wycombe General Hospital in the mid-1960s was met with another <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMlFYzcJS78">gushing tribute</a> from the Pathé News team:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The spaciousness of the entrance and reception hall will give patients confidence that here they are meeting medical science 1967-style, equipped as it should be. Gone is the old atmosphere of healing on the cheap, gone too is the belief that staff of the hospitals should put up with third-rate food and bad quarters. The menus in the nurses’ dining room are varied and make eating a pleasure deserved by women whose devoted service goes far beyond the minimum they could get away with.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I remember this hospital (more commonly known as Wycombe General) from not long after the film was released. It was where I had a tonsillectomy – then a routine operation – at the age of seven. I recall the hospital being shiny and modern, with toilets that were spotlessly clean and, unlike our loo at home, heated!</p>
<p>I remember the children’s ward being a bright sunny room with about eight beds, and a small dayroom where we had breakfast that was made rather cramped by an enormous toy cupboard, where a kind nurse hid my bowl of porridge which I could not eat. I had no trouble with the ice cream we were allowed to have in bed after our operations, though.</p>
<p>Our parents only visited for a short time during the day, but we didn’t seem to mind or feel anxious about it – perhaps in part because of the atmosphere in the hospital, where modern architecture conveyed, even to a young child, confidence in medical science. As the Pathé commentator concluded:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is a good reason for High Wycombe General being called a five-star luxury hospital. It’s part of the new approach to the art and science of getting sick people well.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Fast-forward just over half a century, however, and Wycombe General is now <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-65913081">“approaching its end of life”</a> and in “dire need of replacement”, according to the NHS trust that runs it. While confirming to the BBC that the hospital is still “safe”, the hospital’s ongoing repairs and maintenance now cost the trust around £2 million a year.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532896/original/file-20230620-28-46ld25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="External view of general hospital building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532896/original/file-20230620-28-46ld25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532896/original/file-20230620-28-46ld25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532896/original/file-20230620-28-46ld25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532896/original/file-20230620-28-46ld25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532896/original/file-20230620-28-46ld25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532896/original/file-20230620-28-46ld25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532896/original/file-20230620-28-46ld25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wycombe General in May 2020: the hospital is ‘in dire need of replacement’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/high-wycombe-buckinghamshire-uk-05-18-1737902921">Ben Molyneux/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ambitious plan quickly comes off the rails</h2>
<p>Wycombe General was built following a period when funding for hospital building had increased by over 50%. In 1962, the UK government had published its <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9515.1981.tb00662.x">Hospital Plan</a>, which promised that 90 new hospitals would be commenced in England and Wales by 1971. The plan was to provide a network of new district general hospitals evenly distributed around the country, so that everyone would be in easy reach of all the main hospital services, with just a few of the more unusual specialities based at a regional centre.</p>
<p>However, it did not take long for this ambitious plan to come off the rails. Not enough money had been pledged by the government to fund all the schemes that were proposed, the process of planning and design took a long time, costs escalated, and by 1964, comprehensive revisions had to be made. In successive years, the plans were scaled back.</p>
<p>By the mid-1960s, relatively little had been achieved and the policy of concentrating on district general hospitals was questioned. The <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1969-05-23/debates/bc336ab2-a648-4657-82eb-8790c4de9597/Scotland(HospitalBuildingProgramme)">1966 revision</a> of the Hospital Plan refocused the building programme towards creating units for the elderly and mentally ill. Start dates for new hospitals were postponed and, to try to combat rising costs, stricter financial controls were introduced.</p>
<p>Despite this, there was still a belief in producing good quality buildings designed to meet the needs of modern medicine in attractive surroundings. As the Architects’ Journal put it when discussing the new staff restaurant and stores building at Kingston Hospital in Surrey:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The matter of nurses’ meals is almost a household topic and, along with spectacles and false teeth, has been giving the health ministry a bad press.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At Falkirk Royal Infirmary in Scotland’s central belt, meanwhile, an experimental surgical ward unit was designed around new ways of organising nursing on the lines of progressive patient care, while also making the nurses’ routines easier and reducing the amount of walking they would have to do. Hospital infection and resistance to antibiotics were already a concern in the 1960s, and engineers designed more sophisticated heating and ventilation systems to control the movement of airborne infections and prevent cross infection.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, such considerations cost more than the government was willing to spend, and no health minister of either political persuasion was able to convince the cabinet or the Treasury to provide the amount of money that the rebuilding programme was going to cost.</p>
<p>The 1970s was a period of devaluation of sterling, strikes and war in the Middle East that caused an oil crisis. There was a three-day week, petrol rationing and power cuts. This led to public spending cuts that only worsened the position for the hospital building programme. At the same time, there was widespread criticism of the amount of time it was taking to build each hospital, and concern that a number of recently completed hospitals had been found to have structural defects.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532897/original/file-20230620-30-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="View of hospital building with hills in the distance" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532897/original/file-20230620-30-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532897/original/file-20230620-30-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532897/original/file-20230620-30-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532897/original/file-20230620-30-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532897/original/file-20230620-30-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532897/original/file-20230620-30-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532897/original/file-20230620-30-yaztzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inverclyde Royal Hospital: the brutalist building took 15 years to finish and ran way over budget.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/scottish-hospital-brutalist-architecture-greenock-inverclyde-2270853881">Richard Johnson/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A case in point is the saga of Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock, west Scotland – one of the new district general hospitals promised in the original Hospital Plan. After a provisional cost limit of just over £4 million was approved in 1964, a design team was appointed the following year. However, the UK government halted the project for nearly two years due to a shortage of funds – a time when lots of large national projects were being halted. At the same time, the design brief had to be revised to keep up-to-date with technical guidance.</p>
<p>Amid new tenders, spiralling budgets and a further cost reduction exercise, work finally started on site in 1970, but the official contract completion date of March 1976 was missed, and the fabric of the building was eventually completed in November 1977 – only for the ventilation systems to be found to be defective.</p>
<p>It was not until the very end of 1979 that Inverclyde Royal Hospital was finally completed, at a cost of over £13m – more than three times the original cost limit. There was no single reason for the vastly increased cost, but the era’s high inflation rates were a significant factor. Each delay led to the cost going up, cancelling out the cost reduction exercise. Time and again on new hospital schemes, such exercise led to the use of poorer-quality materials and inferior heating and ventilation systems, which would cause problems with the building later on.</p>
<p>But more fundamentally, the new hospitals being built were now anticipated to last only between 40 and 50 years at the most. The reasons why this changed from the Victorian era when hospitals were built to last for a century or more, are many and complex. The main reason was the increasingly rapid advances being made in medical science, which led to a widespread view that the buildings would become obsolete as medical needs evolved.</p>
<p>But 40 is no age to be consigned to the scrap heap. We do not expect our homes to expire after such a short timespan – but equally, we understand that we need to invest in maintenance to keep them in good condition.</p>
<p>As the NHS celebrates its 75th anniversary, many of its hospitals built in the 1960s, ‘70s and early ‘80s have reached the end of their anticipated lifespan. As a result, the UK is now having to tackle the problem of large numbers of hospitals that have reached the end of their predicted lives.</p>
<p>Part of Johnson’s 2019 general election manifesto promised that <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-confirms-37-billion-for-40-hospitals-in-biggest-hospital-building-programme-in-a-generation">40 new hospitals would be built by 2030</a>. There was talk of “levelling up our NHS” and a determination “to build back better”. However, this plan was later exposed as something of a numbers trick or “<a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p1259#:%7E:text=In%202020%2C%20when%20he%20was,of%20his%202019%20election%20manifesto.">mirage</a>”, with many of the “new” hospitals turning out to be extensions or refurbishments. In February 2023, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/04/only-10-of-boris-johnson-promised-40-new-hospitals-have-full-planning-permission">the Observer reported</a> that only ten of the projects had secured full planning permission, with one NHS trust leader warning that: “Some hospitals are literally falling down.”</p>
<h2>Downgrading ambitions from ‘ideal’ to ‘adequate’</h2>
<p>Search for King’s Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital online, and you are likely to find multiple <a href="https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/health/20676118.behind-scenes-britains-dilapidated-hospital/">news</a> <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/first-phase-replacing-crumbling-queen-110000118.html">items</a> about its dilapidated condition, demands to hasten its replacement, and images of ceilings being <a href="https://twitter.com/RootlessCosmo/status/1643896998771269632?s=20">held up by acrow props</a>.</p>
<p>“Isn’t it lovely,” the Duchess of Kent had told the Lynn Advertiser when she first entered the new hospital in July 1980. According to the same newspaper, the public had been similarly impressed when given guided tours of the newly completed building:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Guides pointed out bright wards … most with outlooks over landscaped gardens. Mouths dropped as guides said patients would be able to choose the main course of their meals from a menu offering 17 options – and every three weeks, that menu would be changed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet, just 43 years later, the Queen Elizabeth has been described as “Britain’s most dilapidated hospital”. According to a report on the <a href="https://www.norfolklive.co.uk/news/norfolk-news/queen-elizabeth-hospital-kings-lynns-8062752">Norfolk Live website</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Patients lie in bed looking up at the [roof] supports … Regular checks take place every day to make sure the roof is not at more risk of collapse through holes in the concrete described as being ‘like an Aero chocolate bar’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Aero bar analogy refers to the <a href="https://www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/news/2023/march/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated--concrete-raac/">reinforced, autoclaved aerated concrete</a> (RAAC) used in the hospital roof’s construction, and in many other public buildings. In 2018, the roof of a primary school in Kent collapsed only a day after “signs of structural stress” had appeared in the staffroom ceiling. It transpired that the roof had been constructed of RAAC, which has an estimated shelf-life of just 30 years.</p>
<p>An initial investigation into the use of RAAC in schools has recently been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/14/uk-public-buildings-feared-to-be-at-risk-of-collapse-as-concrete-crumbles">extended to look at public buildings more widely</a> – including hospitals. In May, a report on the Conservative government’s promise to build 40 new hospitals suggested that just five – <a href="https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/raac-crisis-prioritised-in-hospital-programme-reorganisation">those that had used RAAC in their construction</a> – were now being prioritised.</p>
<p>The Queen Elizabeth was one of the so-called “best buy” hospitals designed by the Department of Health & Social Security (DHSS) as a complete package. These were introduced in 1967 to remedy the problems of drawn-out design processes and escalating costs that had been derailing the NHS hospital building programme. It was a budget version of the district general hospital envisaged in the 1962 Hospital Plan, providing fewer beds per head of population in more confined spaces using simpler construction methods.</p>
<p>Standardisation and prefabrication were the principles of this design process, which was intended to provide an “adequate” rather than “ideal” hospital amid the country’s deep financial challenges of the 1970s. Hospital design was pared back to its essentials – a policy that has largely continued ever since.</p>
<p>The “nucleus” hospitals that followed from the mid-1970s were designed to limit new developments and major extensions to a nucleus of departments costing no more than £6 million (at 1975 prices). Every possible means of economising space and services was explored by the Hospital Building Division within the DHSS.</p>
<p>Crucially, a lower complement of beds per hospital was provided, based on the justification that earlier patient discharges would create a more intensive use of diagnostic and treatment facilities. In other words, Britain’s hospitals were now becoming high-turnover factory lines.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="External view of unusually designed visitor centre" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532900/original/file-20230620-29-in15vt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532900/original/file-20230620-29-in15vt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532900/original/file-20230620-29-in15vt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532900/original/file-20230620-29-in15vt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532900/original/file-20230620-29-in15vt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532900/original/file-20230620-29-in15vt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532900/original/file-20230620-29-in15vt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pushing architectural boundaries: the Frank Gehry-designed Maggie’s Centre in Dundee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maggies_centre_Dundee.jpg">Ydam via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Good design can be life-enhancing</h2>
<p>As hospitals at the end of their lifespan struggle to deal with patient overcrowding amid crumbling facilities, have decades of cost-cutting exercises when it comes to hospital design and construction turned out to be a false economy? Can a price be put on the damaging effects of poor hospital design on staff morale or patient health?</p>
<p>While we can put a figure on the cost of buying in agency staff to cover staff shortages or even major building repairs, less quantifiable is the impact on health and wellbeing of the buildings themselves.</p>
<p>But we know that good design <a href="https://www.maggies.org/media/filer_public/78/3e/783ef1ba-cd5b-471c-b04f-1fe25095406d/evidence-based_programme_web_spreads.pdf">can be life-enhancing</a>. Within the NHS, Maggie’s centres are a network of cancer drop-in centres unified by a groundbreaking commitment to <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/tag/maggies-centres/">pushing architectural boundaries</a>, with their multi-award-winning buildings having been designed by some of the world’s leading architects such as Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid.</p>
<p>These centres, located throughout the UK and also in Hong Kong, offer “unique physical environments” created on the basis of a wide body of evidence that shows how aspects of physical space affect us.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QtCTqRge5Bk?wmode=transparent&start=17" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Explaining the ethos of Maggie’s Centre in Manchester.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The impact of design on inpatient wellbeing has been a growing focus of research for many years, highlighting the importance of obvious elements such as access to nature, attractive surroundings, artworks on walls, single rooms for patients. There is, for example, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1618866716303089">evidence</a> for the therapeutic benefits of “healing gardens”, and gardening or outdoor exercise is sometimes prescribed by GPs.</p>
<p>More recently, consideration of therapeutic spaces has broadened to include hospital staff as well as patients, in order to tackle the high levels of sickness absence, <a href="https://bolt.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/media/summit-2023-solving-the-workforce-burnout-crisis">distress and burnout among healthcare professionals</a> – levels that are higher in this sector than any other. Yet most solutions so far offered have been <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29200422/">short-term interventions</a>, rather than a fundamental reassessment of <a href="https://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/CMS/Portals/0/IPPO%20NHS%20Staff%20Wellbeing%20report_LO160622-1849.pdf">how the workplace should be designed</a> with staff wellbeing placed on the same footing as patient wellbeing.</p>
<p>Designing a hospital in which it is a pleasure both to work and be a patient is surely a goal worth achieving, and one which it is possible to justify on economic grounds. Spending more now on hospital buildings can save having to rebuild, at higher costs, in 20 or 30 years’ time. If done in such a way as to attract new staff, it can reduce the amount spent on agency fees.</p>
<p>Good design does not have to mean a new hospital, even if that is what people believe they want. Promising to build new hospitals is good publicity for any government, but it can also lead to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/25/broken-pledge-over-40-new-hospitals-will-leave-nhs-crumbling-ministers-told">damning headlines</a> about wildly increased costs and failed promises further down the line.</p>
<p>Good design can also be achieved through <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/a-retrofitting-revolution">retrofitting</a>, by altering and adapting existing buildings. It is a more sustainable route and ideally would be the first option considered in the face of the present climate emergency. It is a complex issue, and retrofitting may be impossible in some cases – and very probably more expensive than a new-build in almost every other case. However, it addresses the issues of the embodied carbon in existing buildings.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W1oiC4PG4Zw?wmode=transparent&start=10" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Finalists discuss their approach to the big question: how would you design and plan new hospitals to radically improve patient experiences, clinical outcomes, staff wellbeing, and integration with wider health and social care?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Political pressures to win public votes favours the quick fix. We need a new way of thinking about building, adapting and retrofitting hospitals that can deliver comfortable environments in a sustainable way for the long term, and to understand that cost-cutting today often leads to greater expense in the future.</p>
<p>In 2021, the <a href="https://policyexchange.org.uk/wolfson-economics-prize-2021/">Wolfson Economics Prize</a> set as its challenge the planning and design of the hospital of the future, specifically with a view to “radically” improving patient experiences, clinical outcomes, staff wellbeing and integration with wider health and social care.</p>
<p>The designers of British hospitals in the 1950s and ‘60s – in the early years after the launch of the bold new NHS – might be surprised to find we are still asking the same questions they set out to solve all those years ago.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harriet Richardson Blakeman receives funding from AHRC for doctoral research. </span></em></p>Today’s reports of crumbling, dilapidated and dangerous hospital buildings are a far cry from the design ambitions extolled by early NHS architects and planners.Harriet Richardson Blakeman, PhD Candidate, Architectural History, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1580042021-04-01T14:27:04Z2021-04-01T14:27:04ZZaha Hadid: even more than her buildings, it’s her mind that left its mark<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393124/original/file-20210401-13-1j23qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Changsha Meixihu Culture and Arts Centre, in Hunan province, China. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects in 2019</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/changsha-hunan-provence-china-19-april-1670545345">Jason_x.j / Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the five years since Zaha Hadid’s passing, much has been written about the <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/03/tracing-legacy-zaha-hadid-architectures-esteemed-anomaly/">glorious</a> and <a href="https://graziamagazine.com/articles/architect-zaha-hadid-legacy/">towering</a> legacy the fabled British-Iraqi architect left behind. Thinking about what she started, though, is more instructive. </p>
<p>Born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1950, Hadid – aka the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/sep/08/zaha-hadid-serpentine-sackler-profile">Queen of Curve</a> – fundamentally altered the contours of modern architecture and design. She <a href="https://journals.msvu.ca/index.php/atlantis/article/view/214/204">shattered gender stereotypes</a> too by, in 2004, becoming the <a href="https://www.pritzkerprize.com/announcement-zaha-hadid#:%7E:text=Zaha%20Hadid%2C%20an%20Iraqi%20born,this%2026%20year%20old%20award.">first woman</a> to receive the Pritzker prize – the highest award in her field. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393149/original/file-20210401-15-1ek02nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393149/original/file-20210401-15-1ek02nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393149/original/file-20210401-15-1ek02nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393149/original/file-20210401-15-1ek02nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393149/original/file-20210401-15-1ek02nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393149/original/file-20210401-15-1ek02nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393149/original/file-20210401-15-1ek02nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Antwerp Port House by Zaha Hadid Architects, Antwerp, Belgium.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/H6RKjMQR-AI">Claudia Lorusso on Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the world grapples with how to respond to the climate crisis, architecture is <a href="https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/editorial/the-climate-is-changing-so-must-architecture_o">in the spotlight</a>. The built environment is responsible for almost <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/931240/the-facts-about-architecture-and-climate-change">36% of</a> global energy consumption. Cement alone causes 8% of global emissions. </p>
<p>In this context, Hadid’s most valuable contribution is <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/76392497.pdf">the inspiration she represented</a> and <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/53287902.pdf">the innovation</a> she embodied. She conceived of modernity as an incomplete project, to be tackled. And she demonstrated to students not just how to imagine revolutionary forms but, crucially, how to bring them to life. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An aerial shot of Zaha Hadid's building for the Beijing Daxing International Airport in China" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393152/original/file-20210401-17-wvzsla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393152/original/file-20210401-17-wvzsla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393152/original/file-20210401-17-wvzsla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393152/original/file-20210401-17-wvzsla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393152/original/file-20210401-17-wvzsla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393152/original/file-20210401-17-wvzsla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393152/original/file-20210401-17-wvzsla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Daxing International Airport in Beijing, China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/1y9xbopd87c">Hao Wen on Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Problem solving</h2>
<p>The seductive nature of Hadid’s buildings means that the approach she took to sustainability is often overshadowed. It also wasn’t an explicit aspect of her early works, but rather became so later on in her career, in projects including the <a href="https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/zaha-hadid-architects-to-build-sustainable-beeah-headquarters_o">Bee’ah Headquarters</a> in Sharjah, and <a href="https://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/forest-green-rovers-eco-park-stadium/">Eco-park stadium</a> in London. In 2015 she memorably highlighted sustainability as a <a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/opinion/hadid-sustainability-is-a-defining-challenge-of-our-generation">defining challenge</a> of her generation and stated that “architects had solutions”. </p>
<p>Hadid was a problem solver. From the outset she was unique in <a href="https://www.patrikschumacher.com/Texts/Parametricism%20-%20A%20New%20Global%20Style%20for%20Architecture%20and%20Urban%20Design.html">harnessing both technology</a> and talent, through her groundbreaking <a href="https://www.zhvrgroup.com/about">interdisciplinary research group</a>. She was one of the early adopters of a fully digitised 3D design process. When virtual reality became a thing, her practice was one of the first to adopt that too. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A detail shot of the exterior of Morpheus Hotel by Zaha Hadid Architects in Macau, China" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393153/original/file-20210401-19-y1nw9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393153/original/file-20210401-19-y1nw9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393153/original/file-20210401-19-y1nw9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393153/original/file-20210401-19-y1nw9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393153/original/file-20210401-19-y1nw9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393153/original/file-20210401-19-y1nw9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393153/original/file-20210401-19-y1nw9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Morpheus Hotel by Zaha Hadid Architects in Macau, China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/Tk59eks5EE0">Macau Photo Agency / Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This ability to make things happen was hard won. As a student at the Architectural Association in London in the mid-1970s, Hadid turned heads from the start with her otherworldly ideas. But it took her over a decade to get her designs realised. It was with her first big commission – the 1993 <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/785760/ad-classics-vitra-fire-station-zaha-hadid-weil-am-rhein-germany">Vitra Fire Station</a> in Germany – that the world finally got to see up close the power of her architectural imagination. </p>
<p>The Danish architect Bjarke Ingels (founder of Bjarke Ingels Group, one of the most dynamic contemporary architectural practices) described visiting Vitra Fire Station as an “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsAdCiJKJPE">eyeopening experience</a>” that brought to life the kind of visual impossibilities people usually only dream of.
For all its ambition, though, the Vitra building was <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/zaha-hadid">criticised as unsuitable</a> by the firemen who occupied it. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An early, futuristic concrete design for a fire station in Germany by British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393095/original/file-20210401-15-etwvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393095/original/file-20210401-15-etwvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393095/original/file-20210401-15-etwvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393095/original/file-20210401-15-etwvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393095/original/file-20210401-15-etwvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393095/original/file-20210401-15-etwvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393095/original/file-20210401-15-etwvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zaha Hadid’s groundbreaking design for the Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein, Germany.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/weil-rhein-germany-march-11-2017-1316375450">kamienczanka / Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Undeterred, Hadid went on to <a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/archive/zahas-daring-mind-zone-designs-unveiled">create daring</a>, experimental designs for London’s <a href="https://www.zaha-hadid.com/design/mind-zone/">Millennium Dome exhibition spaces</a> and the <a href="https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/serpentine-gallery-pavilion-2000-zaha-hadid-0/">Serpentine Gallery’s annual summer pavillion</a>. She gave Innsbruck a new landmark – the Bergisel Ski Jump – and became the first woman to ever design <a href="https://www.e-architect.com/books/hadid-complete-works">an American art museum</a>, with her <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/786968/ad-classics-rosenthal-center-for-contemporary-art-zaha-hadid-architects-usa">iconic Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art</a> in Cincinnati. </p>
<h2>Immeasurable influence</h2>
<p>Although her career had begun with that infamous tag of her buildings being unbuildable, Hadid rapidly established herself as a radical architect by creating a strong and unique <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/mar/31/zaha-hadid-10-best-buildings-in-pictures">design statement</a> globally. Hadid expanded her global brand and her reach to <a href="https://architizer.com/blog/practice/materials/zaha-hadid-product-designs/">product design</a>, <a href="https://www.dsigners.net/2016/12/14/zaha-hadid-the-trend-designer/">fashion and jewellery</a>. </p>
<p>In Canadian architectural historian <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-female-architects-the-loss-of-zaha-hadid-is-personal-57474">Despina Stratigakos’s</a> book, Where Are the Women Architects?, Hadid explained how she survived and fought sexism in her profession. Her <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/220155819.pdf">inspiring attitude and professional demeanour</a> was gender-neutral. She was able to switch between femininity and masculinity as required to survive and excel in what is a ruthless and ultra-competitive business. </p>
<p>In this way, even though her projects saw her <a href="https://journals.msvu.ca/index.php/atlantis/article/view/214/204">labelled</a> a <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-the-death-of-starchitect-zaha-hadid-bring-life-to-more-of-her-designs-57205">starchitect</a>, Hadid’s ideas set her apart from the old school. They opened a radically new path for later generations, like this year’s <a href="https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/anne-lacaton-and-jean-philippe-vassal">Pritzker laureates</a>, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal. </p>
<p>Her presence continues to be felt across the contemporary design and architecture worlds. With around <a href="https://www.instagram.com/zahahadidarchitects/?hl=en">1.2 million Instagram followers</a>, Zaha Hadid Architects is now the most followed architectural practice in the world. Her sinuous lines and captivating shapes have been referenced by set designers on trendsetting movies <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2018/03/01/black-panther-film-designer-zaha-hadid/">including Black Panther</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Details of the exterior of the Nanjing International Youth Cultural Center by Zaha Hadid in Nanjing, China" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393155/original/file-20210401-19-t16kn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393155/original/file-20210401-19-t16kn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393155/original/file-20210401-19-t16kn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393155/original/file-20210401-19-t16kn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393155/original/file-20210401-19-t16kn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393155/original/file-20210401-19-t16kn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393155/original/file-20210401-19-t16kn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Nanjing International Youth Cultural Center by Zaha Hadid in Nanjing, China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/izC9Yob6DGM">Denys Nevozhai / Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her words – especially the famous quote, “There are 360 degrees. Why stick to one?” – have stuck with <a href="https://www.cladglobal.com/architecture_design_features?codeid=31245">architects</a> in China and <a href="https://studio-symbiosis.com/">designers</a> in Germany and India. Her principles have fostered new possiblities in <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/551269/zaha-hadid-s-student-envisions-an-antarctic-port-for-tourism-and-research">architectural research</a>, <a href="https://futurearchitectureplatform.org/projects/064a56a9-8fe0-4b91-af2b-e3eac2e50892/">thinking</a> and <a href="http://www.designxsaber.com/hadid/#ZHapproach">process</a>. </p>
<p>In every way, <a href="https://theconversation.com/zaha-hadid-an-exceptional-complex-and-inspirational-person-to-work-with-57138">Hadid remains a muse</a>. She was rebellious and defiant. She embraced the unimaginable. Known for provoking controversies, even her critics agreed to the fact that without Hadid, <a href="https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/architecture-would-be-less-interesting-without-zaha-hadid">architecture would be</a> less interesting. </p>
<p>When she won the Pritzker prize in 2004, the jury <a href="https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/2004">noted</a> how consistently she defied convention. Even if she’d never built anything, they said, Zaha Hadid would have radically expanded the possibilities of architecture. She was lauded as an iconoclast, a beautiful mind. As the critic <a href="https://www.pritzkerprize.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/2004_essay.pdf">Joseph Giovannini</a> put it at the time, “Rarely has an architect so radically changed and inspired the field”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lakshmi Priya Rajendran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The British-Iraqi architect left behind a trail of extraordinary buildings. More than her built legacy, though, it is her maverick problem solving – and her determination – that continues to inspireLakshmi Priya Rajendran, Senior Research Fellow, Future Cities, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1258922019-10-25T14:04:34Z2019-10-25T14:04:34ZRefurbishing old buildings reduces emissions – but outdated tax rates make it expensive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298737/original/file-20191025-173562-rnpqyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C5160%2C3406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Old and new in Milton Keynes, UK. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/grand-union-canal-running-through-old-98774561">donsimon/Shutterstock. </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The construction of new buildings in the UK emits <a href="https://www.ukgbc.org/climate-change/">48 megatonnes</a> of carbon dioxide (CO₂) each year – that’s equal to the <a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/set-net-zero-greenhouse-gas-emissions-target-year-information-analysis/pages/5/">net emissions</a> of the entire country of Scotland. The materials, transportation and construction processes for new buildings are all carbon intensive. For example, cement accounts for <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46455844">an estimated 8%</a> of global CO₂ emissions.</p>
<p>Existing buildings already embody significant CO₂ emissions, which makes it all the more important to upgrade and refurbish – rather than demolish and rebuild – wherever possible. But as it stands, the UK’s tax system actually puts a significant financial penalty on refurbishment, while incentivising new construction. </p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Construction_VAT">three VAT rates</a> for residential construction: 20% for refurbishment, 0% for most new houses or flats and 5% for certain work, such as redeveloping long-term empty residences or merging two properties into one. </p>
<p>This difference in cost distorts the market significantly towards investment in new buildings, regardless of environmental considerations. Although the <a href="http://www.vatlive.com/vat-rates/european-vat-rates/">rates vary</a> across Europe, my own research has found that <a href="https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/files/7921260/EU_VAT_rates_Comparative_sustainable_construction.xlsx">similar disparities</a> arise. </p>
<p>Because of this, reforming construction VAT rates would offer an easy opportunity to enormously reduce CO₂ emissions, avoid waste and encourage improvements within the existing building stock – all of which could be done quite simply. With a short transition period to allow continuity for developments that have already received financing or planning approval, such reform could be implemented rapidly, providing a powerful tool to help accelerate sustainable, low-carbon construction.</p>
<h2>Make it simple</h2>
<p>To start with, construction VAT rates for all dwellings should be simplified: all new or existing building works should have the same 5% rate, as experts <a href="http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Society/documents/2005/11/22/UTF_final_report.pdf">have long called for</a>. This <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/sites/taxation/files/resources/documents/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/rates/study_reduced_vat.pdf">would help</a> level the playing field and accelerate energy-saving improvements to existing dwellings and reduce waste, in cases where demolishing an existing building is evidently less environmentally sustainable than refurbishing it.</p>
<p>But this alone won’t go far enough. Although <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/approved-documents">building regulations</a> enforce minimum standards of energy efficiency, there’s currently a lack of incentive and many barriers that prevent developers from delivering lower emissions during construction and better energy performance over the building’s life expectancy, by using advanced sustainable construction techniques and materials. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B3XyGhjJ1IV","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>For example, key feature of the 2019 Stirling Prize winner <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/oct/08/stirling-prize-architecture-goldsmith-street-norwich-council-houses">Goldsmith Street social housing</a> – by Mikhail Riches architects for Norwich City Council – was that it met the widely-recognised <a href="http://passivhaustrust.org.uk/what_is_passivhaus.phphttp://passivhaustrust.org.uk/what_is_passivhaus.php">Passivhaus standard</a>. This standard calls for a design that reduces heat loss from the building, so much so that it hardly requires any heating at all. Rigorous design, quality control, supervision and testing were required to ensure the reduction of CO₂ emissions massively surpassed building regulations.</p>
<h2>Create incentives</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/incentivising-design-quality-and-sustainability(6f808b09-a79d-4ce9-bf92-4c266855297a).html">my research</a>, I propose that the existing 0% VAT rate for new dwellings could be redefined, so that developers can only obtain financial rewards if they use low-carbon construction techniques to create highly energy efficient buildings. </p>
<p>This could accelerate reductions in CO₂ emissions and help the UK meet its climate obligations, such as <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf">the Paris Agreement</a>. Any cost to the government <a href="https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/files/7975024/13_03_15_RIBA_VAT_Proposals.pdf">could be matched</a> by additional income from raising VAT from 0% to 5% on some new buildings, reducing in VAT avoidance (the current 20% rate drives the black economy) and creating long-term economic benefits by reducing demands on energy supply and materials consumption.</p>
<p>Industry standard measures – such as <a href="http://passivhaustrust.org.uk/what_is_passivhaus.phphttp://passivhaustrust.org.uk/what_is_passivhaus.php">Passivhaus</a> and <a href="https://www.breeam.com/">BREEAM</a> – already provide a way to verify and certify the quality of building construction. Measures that enable the <a href="https://www.ukgbc.org/sites/default/files/How%20to%20build%20circular%20economy%20thinking%20into%20your%20projects.pdf">reuse of construction waste</a> should also be taken into consideration. </p>
<p>For example, bricks laid with cement mortar can’t be reused, whereas using lime mortar means they can be recycled whole. This might also include the use of recycled masonry, ironmongery, doors and linings, floors, fittings and windows – all of which used to be available in architectural salvage yards. </p>
<p>So, new or refurbished dwellings that exceed the building regulation requirements by delivering further CO₂ emissions reductions, would receive a 0% VAT rate after being completed and certified according to industry standards. For developers, the recoverable sum would be an incentive driving CO₂ reductions, innovation and higher quality construction. </p>
<p>The realities of the climate emergency <a href="https://www.constructiondeclares.com/">are widely recognised</a> across the construction industry, and the prospect of VAT reform already <a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/introducing-retrofirst-a-new-aj-campaign-championing-reuse-in-the-built-environment/10044359.article">enjoys wide support</a> from bodies including the Architects’ Climate Action Network, RIBA, Historic Environment Scotland, the Town and Country Planning Association, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and the UK Green Building Council. </p>
<p>Reforming construction VAT so that all projects face the same 5% rate could rapidly incentivise change to more sustainable, low-carbon construction – at no cost to the taxpayer. With the UK seeking to become net carbon neutral by 2050, waiting is no longer an option.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125892/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Walter Menteth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Developers pay more tax to refurbish than demolish and rebuild – but there’s a very easy fix.Walter Menteth, Senior Lecturer, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1099892019-02-06T10:36:18Z2019-02-06T10:36:18ZPrisons and asylums prove architecture can build up or break down a person’s mental health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257249/original/file-20190205-86213-15czned.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=158%2C340%2C2751%2C1546&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/empty-ward-withs-beds-curtains-abandoned-1289966974">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Anyone who has witnessed conditions in the UK’s prisons – whether <a href="https://www.channel4.com/programmes/prison/episode-guide">on television</a> or in person – could not fail to be alarmed by the violence, despair and mental distress experienced by staff and prisoners. In the current chaos of the prison environment, caused in part by <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/number-of-prison-officers-resigning-from-post-soars-amid-soaring-levels-of-violence-and-selfharm-a8427616.html">staff recruitment and retention problems</a>, growing numbers of prisoners are using illegal drugs to self-medicate – often with appalling consequences for their mental health. </p>
<p>Self-harm and suicide rates are also <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/prisons-self-harm-assaults-2018-england-wales-justice-mental-health-care-support-a8755786.html">on the rise</a>, with the latter reaching a record high of 52,814 incidents in 2018; a 23% increase from 2017. While many prisoners enter custody with serious mental health needs, there is evidence from <a href="https://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/research_and_statistics/journal/volume_5_issue_1_july_2017/new_zealand_prisoners_prior_exposure_to_trauma.html">research</a> that being in prison can exacerbate experiences of trauma and mental illness, and bring on a profound <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8390.html">pain of imprisonment</a>.</p>
<p>But it doesn’t have to be this way. As the UK government <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/mar/22/four-supersized-prisons-to-be-built-england-and-wales-elizabeth-truss-plan">plans to open four new prisons</a> by 2020-21, it’s worth remembering how great an impact the architecture of such institutions can have on the mental health of inmates. Building design can offer therapeutic benefits for both psychiatric in-patients and prisoners. Or, it can result in vulnerable people – including those with severe mental illness – being held in custody, rather than receiving high quality, community-based care. </p>
<h2>An intertwined history with the asylum</h2>
<p>Our research explores the <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783319940892">intertwined histories</a> of asylums and penitentiaries. Today, asylums are viewed with horror, due to the <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009801485">barbaric practices</a> employed there from the 18th to the 20th century. Over time, physical constraints such as leg irons and straitjackets gave way to more sophisticated (not to say alarming) medical practices. </p>
<p>Insulin coma therapy was used in asylums in the 1930s and 1940s for treating schizophrenia – the rationale being that a deep coma would “fry” the disease. As late as the 1970s, in Britain, inmates of asylums could be regularly drugged with sedatives known as “liquid cosh” or subjected to lobotomies or electroconvulsive therapy. </p>
<p>Yet from the early decades of the 19th century, many asylums were purpose built and architecturally designed to aid mental recovery. Today, many imagine they were built on the edges of major towns and cities to emphasise the marginal status of patients. But in fact, their location and built environment was based on an intention to reintroduce recovered patients back into society, and initially, patients were <a href="https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/victorian-mental-asylum">observed to make progress</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257235/original/file-20190205-86210-lh8n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257235/original/file-20190205-86210-lh8n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257235/original/file-20190205-86210-lh8n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257235/original/file-20190205-86210-lh8n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257235/original/file-20190205-86210-lh8n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257235/original/file-20190205-86210-lh8n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257235/original/file-20190205-86210-lh8n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Patients at the Broadmoor Asylum for Criminal Lunatics, mid-19th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/y7jdm89e">Wellcome Collection.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While some had high walls and locked doors to wards, many more were built with spatial therapy in mind: fresh air, cultivated lawns and leafy walkways around the perimeter were used to promote calmness and reflection. Patients might enjoy a cricket match with staff, or undertake occupational therapy in the purpose-built farmyard. </p>
<p>But as the 19th century wound to a close, asylums began to take on the punitive, oppressive atmosphere of prisons. A combination of <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/disability-history/1832-1914/the-growth-of-the-asylum/">mass incarceration</a> and a demoralised workforce meant asylums were filled up with “chronic” cases. An aroma of moral censure in the attitudes of staff reflected the asylum’s morally imposing architecture: the bricks and mortar seemed designed to lock inmates in permanently. </p>
<p>This transformation obscured whatever was once therapeutic about such places. No wonder few mourned the passing of these “total institutions” – a memorable phrase used by the sociologist Erving Goffman to reflect the toll they took on a person’s identity. The term <a href="http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100005375">“institutional neurosis”</a> eventually gave a medical name to the problem: these places caused patients to become passive, demotivated and dependent on the staff and structures of the institution.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257238/original/file-20190205-86233-165nm43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257238/original/file-20190205-86233-165nm43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257238/original/file-20190205-86233-165nm43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257238/original/file-20190205-86233-165nm43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257238/original/file-20190205-86233-165nm43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257238/original/file-20190205-86233-165nm43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257238/original/file-20190205-86233-165nm43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">HMP Manchester, formerly Strangeways Prison.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Strangeways-geograph-4634562-by-Peter-McDermott.jpg">Peter McDermott/Wikimedia Commons.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From the mid-19th century, the asylum had its dark double in the penitentiary, which <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Crime-in-England-1815-1880-Experiencing-the-criminal-justice-system/Johnston/p/book/9781843929536">caused widespread insanity</a> among both kinds of inmates. Morally imposing architecture, like that found at Broadmoor Hospital (built in 1863) and Manchester Prison (1862), contributed to a sense of imprisonment felt by asylum inmates, and to a sense of madness among prisoners. The decorative Italianate design features of these buildings do little to soften the sense that their towering facades belong to an unenlightened era.</p>
<h2>Future-proofing prisons</h2>
<p>As the UK government contemplates its next phase of prison planning and design, it would do well to consider the self-harming, paranoid and destructive behaviour recorded by the Prison Reform Trust, which <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/WhatWeDo/ProjectsResearch/Mentalhealth">recently found that</a> 25% of women and 15% of men in prison reported symptoms indicative of psychosis (compared to a rate of 4% among the general public) and suicides were 8.6 times more likely in prison than in the general population. </p>
<p>Up to now, the government’s approach to “future-proofing” prison environments – that is, attempting to make them suitable for use up to 50 years in the future – has typically involved ramping up their security to suit an imagined, future group of offenders, who will require greater control of movement and more secure accommodation than current prisoners. </p>
<p>Having a psychiatric disorder <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5008459/">is associated with</a> violence and victimisation in prison, so it seems likely that a focus on providing <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/TJSBt8yky3xFi6YxsuWW/full">a healthier built environment</a>, rather than a more secure one, would benefit prisoners and staff alike. </p>
<p>Prisoners who are locked in their cells for most of the day <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/11/out-of-control-prison-watchdog-warns-of-synthetic-drug-crisis?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">can expend their energy</a> by planning how to get contraband into the prison, or <a href="https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/library/drugs-in-prison">take drugs</a> to pass the time. Surely then, it’s time to take offenders out of the shadow of the asylum, and to rethink “future-proofing” as an opportunity to create spaces for rehabilitation, giving those who have been incarcerated opportunities for a positive future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109989/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yvonne Jewkes receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Cross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Asylums were once designed to aid mental recovery – perhaps modern prisons should take note.Simon Cross, Senior Lecturer in Media and Culture, Nottingham Trent UniversityYvonne Jewkes, Professor of Criminology, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1090212019-01-09T14:38:24Z2019-01-09T14:38:24ZHow Victorian newspapers changed the look of British towns and cities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251507/original/file-20181219-45388-19fldt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">At the heart of Edinburgh.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/edinburgh-scotland-uk-may-3-2018-1084055570?src=UdftKRCQvKpg2Ix-8PSSMg-1-5">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the game of rock, paper, scissors, paper is more powerful than rock. And so it was in the second half of the 19th century, when influential local newspapers shifted stones, bricks and mortar to build the townscapes that endure to this day.</p>
<p>Around the British Isles, and across the world, purpose built newspaper offices towered over main streets and market squares – at the heart of of the towns and cities they served. In the UK they became an increasingly common sight from the 1860s onwards, when <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-dawn-of-the-cheap-press-in-victorian-britain-9781474243322/">the end of newspaper taxation led to a boom in local publishing</a>. </p>
<p>At the same time, they had an effect on the construction of other public buildings. The act of reading newspapers was considered so important that the biggest room in new public libraries was designed and built specifically for this purpose.</p>
<p>Today, as print circulation and profits fall, local papers are abandoning town centres. Many are selling their landmark buildings and moving to cheaper premises in the suburbs, while some reporters do their work from cafes.</p>
<p>In November 2018, the Bath Chronicle gave up its shopfront home and moved into offices inside a local college. Earlier in the year, the Swindon Advertiser moved more than two miles to a building out of town. </p>
<p>Like redundant churches, these empty or converted buildings are a sign of social change. The Scotsman’s landmark building on North Bridge, Edinburgh, is now a hotel. What was once the home of the Blackburn Times is now a pub. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Blackburn Times they are a changing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the mid-19th century, local newspapers were a far more popular product than they are today. When the gentlemen of Preston, in the north of England, decided to build their own club premises in a Georgian square in 1846, they made sure that the largest room in the building was the one for reading the news. </p>
<p>Working class men were equally keen. In 1851, a group of Carlisle newspaper readers attracted national attention when they opened a purpose-built news room. By 1861, Carlisle had six working-class reading rooms, with around 1,000 members. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Carlisle reading room.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">UCLAN</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The design and use of pubs was also influenced by the Victorian newspaper. A sign in the “news room” of Liverpool’s Lion Tavern is still there today, demonstrating how pubs saw the availability of newspapers as an attraction worth advertising. </p>
<p>Landlords even paid skilled public readers to bring the newspaper alive in crowded pubs with readings. One Liverpool licensee, John McArdle, “performed” the paper himself, with Irish nationalists coming to his pub in Crosbie Street every Sunday night to hear him read from The Nation. </p>
<h2>Building an industry</h2>
<p>From the 1850s, when taxes on newspapers were abolished, local papers overtook London papers in sales and readership, as my <a href="https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/835">new book</a> recounts. It was then that booming provincial newspapers began to carve their names in stone, literally, with purpose built offices, proclaiming their importance to the local economy and culture.</p>
<p>One of the first was built by the Hereford Times in 1858. It was in an Italian style with elaborate scrollwork, roof line statues and an ornate cupola, engraved with the newspaper’s title. Such pretentious classical elements were also used by The Times in London. As media historian Carole O’Reilly <a href="https://www.academia.edu/38001395/The_Architecture_of_Newspaper_Buildings">wrote</a>, this was the architectural language of “power, wealth, authority and taste”. Statues of the pioneering printers Gutenberg and Caxton were common, as were town crests, proclaiming local identity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 1858 home of the Hereford Times.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Newspapers’ place at the centre of the town symbolised their place in readers’ lives. In the front office, people queued to announce rites of passage in the local paper – births, marriages and deaths – or to consult the fullest archive of local life, the bound back copies of the newspaper.</p>
<p>Another type of landmark building, the public library, would have been much smaller if Victorian newspapers had not been so popular. News rooms were specifically mentioned in the 1850 Public Libraries Act which started the growth of public libraries. Magazines and newspapers were more popular than books, and so were given more space by architects and early librarians. <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015033882336">The manual</a> on how to run these new institutions suggested giving half of the public area to newspapers.</p>
<p>Newspaper popularity also meant a place was needed where you could buy them, and the newsagent shop arrived in the 1860s, adding a messy but popular new look to the streets, with shocking front-page images in the windows and jumbles of billboards on the shop front outside.</p>
<p>Today, those newsagents, libraries, pubs, and of course the newspapers themselves, are all in decline. But the legacy of their boom time in the Victorian era remains – in the architecture and buildings of the towns and cities whose inhabitants once placed enormous value on their local news.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109021/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Hobbs is a member of the National Union of Journalists</span></em></p>Buildings built for writing and reading the news altered the urban fabric.Andrew Hobbs, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/895542018-02-08T13:34:59Z2018-02-08T13:34:59ZHow to make healthy buildings in an era of mass migration<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205520/original/file-20180208-180805-9nxjpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Green and healthy,</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/1017869095?src=ZJZa_R3Raz1wTOk_j3-bWQ-1-76&size=huge_jpg">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth">Worldwide population growth</a> and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/64d058c4-b84f-11e5-b151-8e15c9a029fb">mass migrations</a> are putting the infrastructure of many cities <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mass-immigration-report-warns-of-strain-on-britain-s-infrastructure-caused-by-population-growth-9641788.html">under strain</a>. With city governments under pressure to provide more housing and work spaces, people can end up living and working in poorly designed or low quality buildings. </p>
<p>Since the beginning of human civilisation, people have been striving to create a beneficial built environment. Take Neolithic buildings, for instance: they <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=p0KqDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA161&lpg=PA161&dq=neolithic+buildings+orientation&source=bl&ots=DDrCBmo_Ww&sig=XKvXW1bWFmbLQDiLb88iA7h33yg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjs4v3HyYzYAhWFLsAKHbTyAHUQ6AEIODAG#v=onepage&q=neolithic%20buildings%20orientation&f=false">were purposefully orientated</a> to catch the sun and allow for ventilation. Later, over 3,000 years ago in Crete, the <a href="http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/greeceknossos.htm">Minoans built</a> underground sewage systems to avoid plagues. So too did <a href="http://www.architecturerevived.com/architecture-innovations-of-ancient-rome/">the Romans</a>, who also used underfloor heating systems and aqueducts, and provided baths throughout the empire to keep the population in good health. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205521/original/file-20180208-180833-jtrsba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205521/original/file-20180208-180833-jtrsba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205521/original/file-20180208-180833-jtrsba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205521/original/file-20180208-180833-jtrsba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205521/original/file-20180208-180833-jtrsba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205521/original/file-20180208-180833-jtrsba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205521/original/file-20180208-180833-jtrsba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205521/original/file-20180208-180833-jtrsba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Slums in Wentworth Street, Whitechapel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wentworth_st,_Whitechapel_Wellcome_L0000878.jpg">Wellcome Images/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite these early successes, maintaining healthy conditions became much more difficult in times of rapid population growth. During the industrial revolution, for instance, many cities quickly became overpopulated. With growing industries, employers were under pressure to accommodate more workers, and decayed or unfit buildings were used to host increasing numbers of tenants. </p>
<p>In the UK, living conditions reached such poor standards that the government <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/standard/history/1830_1930/public_health/revision/3/">passed a number of laws</a> to improve public health. A similar <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uI6uDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA50&lpg=PA50&dq=hygienist+movement+architecture&source=bl&ots=2X_taDUg8y&sig=uKVu--3NF5wioiXGQeVfOmY5Ey0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjY7_e2jYzYAhWkKcAKHayLADEQ6AEIWzAL#v=onepage&q=hygienist%20movement%20architecture&f=false">sanitation project</a> took place in Germany, at around the same time. These strategies provided many cities with outstanding green infrastructure such as parks and boulevards, which still bring <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-nature-is-so-good-for-us-why-arent-all-public-green-spaces-accessible-61708">many health benefits</a> to those who can access them today.</p>
<h2>Sick building syndrome</h2>
<p>But in recent years, “<a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Sick-building-syndrome/">sick building syndrome</a>” has become <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-08/documents/sick_building_factsheet.pdf">a worry worldwide</a>. Research has shown that headaches and respiratory problems among office workers were directly related to the use of air conditioning, poor ventilation and other widely-adopted technologies. Today, health professionals and designers have <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7bWkwTPqbNAC&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=increasing+amount+of+evidence+sick+building&source=bl&ots=OqkrauFDAH&sig=_DrZLj9Kq6NFtiy8Cbd1ZkT7rz4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiD0tKnl4zYAhWJHsAKHbcHDfwQ6AEIYDAJ#v=onepage&q=increasing%20amount%20of%20evidence%20sick%20building&f=false">plenty of evidence</a> to show that some buildings can harm people, both physically and psychologically. Yet ensuring buildings are “healthy” is a difficult task.</p>
<p>In the UK, some features such as ventilation and heating have to meet <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/building-regulation">certain standards</a>. But other design features, which are known to have a big impact on human welfare, are still not regulated. For example, there’s <a href="http://joeltunaley.blogspot.co.uk/">evidence that</a> exposure to natural light and direct contact with nature have a positive effect on school exam results – yet there’s no legislation which says they must be a feature of learning environments. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205522/original/file-20180208-180826-1ru3zjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205522/original/file-20180208-180826-1ru3zjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205522/original/file-20180208-180826-1ru3zjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205522/original/file-20180208-180826-1ru3zjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205522/original/file-20180208-180826-1ru3zjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205522/original/file-20180208-180826-1ru3zjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205522/original/file-20180208-180826-1ru3zjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sore head?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/businessman-sleeping-on-his-laptop-after-1005776497?src=l23_QDF22Clo20bt5m2l1Q-1-66">Shutterstock.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And while scientists are constantly experimenting to grow our knowledge of the impacts that buildings have on human health, laws and regulations tend to develop more slowly. This means that even new buildings can be inadequately ventilated, or suffer from a lack of natural light – even though we now know that both cause symptoms of ill health. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://fspbusiness.co.za/articles/workplace-safety/six-ways-poor-ventilation-can-affect-your-employees-health-2277.html">lack of natural ventilation</a> means viruses are retained in the air, while a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4031400/">lack of natural light</a> can affect brain functions. In Britain alone, these design pitfalls are adding to the stress on the NHS, and costing the economy <a href="http://www.airintelligence.co.uk/sick-building-syndrome/">an estimated £24.6m</a> due to lost working days each year. </p>
<p>What’s more, as the <a href="http://theconversation.com/grenfell-fire-aftermath-how-20th-century-buildings-can-be-made-safer-not-more-dangerous-79518">Grenfell Tower disaster</a> made awfully clear, technical difficulties and budget constraints can mean refurbishments are made using incompatible or inappropriate building materials, resulting in homes which simply aren’t safe to live in. </p>
<h2>Tech fails</h2>
<p>Architects aim to deliver sustainability by reducing energy consumption. There is a huge range of technologies which <a href="https://www.carbontrust.com/media/63632/ctg011-renewable-energy-technologies.pdf">can help</a> achieve this. But relying too heavily on such solutions can backfire: in 2016, researchers found that many homes had been <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-36134213">built to be airtight</a>, in a bid to meet energy efficiency targets. This can cause CO₂ and other pollutants to build up indoors, which in turn has adverse effects on residents’ health. </p>
<p>Human factors – including how we navigate and socialise within the built environment, and how our body responds to it – also <a href="http://esg.adec-innovations.com/about-us/faqs/what-is-social-sustainability/">have a big impact</a> on the overall efficiency of buildings, and the sustainable technologies which go into them. Research <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032117309061">has shown that</a> people don’t always operate equipment as instructed – rather, they naturally look for comfort through more instinctive behaviours. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205476/original/file-20180208-180813-ggt74e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205476/original/file-20180208-180813-ggt74e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205476/original/file-20180208-180813-ggt74e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205476/original/file-20180208-180813-ggt74e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205476/original/file-20180208-180813-ggt74e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205476/original/file-20180208-180813-ggt74e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205476/original/file-20180208-180813-ggt74e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Energy efficiency cat says ‘close the window!’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/funny-cat-walks-by-open-window-758052514?src=aP3haWEUYJi59FPZJ8hbuQ-2-20">Shutterstock.</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>For example, when we feel a room is overheated, we tend to open windows to gain instant refreshment, rather than turning the thermostat down. This reduces the effectiveness of low-carbon technologies. So even buildings that have plenty of features to enhance energy efficiency can still be unsustainable, if people don’t use them properly. </p>
<h2>The power of good design</h2>
<p>Design is still <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/embedding-sustainability-design-future">the most powerful tool</a> an architect can use: simple design measures, such as opening buildings towards sunnier aspects or adding ventilation in strategic locations to make the most of prevalent winds, are <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-BlvBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=orientation+of+neolithic+buildings&source=bl&ots=6PsDQod83q&sig=Rbsi6OCqK8BV7dGn3YCDNv9Eq40&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8w8ftv47YAhUHKsAKHfYpBn4Q6AEIQjAG#v=onepage&q=orientation%20of%20neolithic%20buildings&f=false">tried and tested techniques</a> which can help to deliver healthier, more sustainable buildings. </p>
<p>Yet this approach comes with its own issues. Inner-city locations are often difficult to build in, because of their small size and crowded surroundings. Sometimes, architects will prioritise creating a “landmark” exterior, at the cost of a healthy interior. Other times, architects misinterpret planning guidance and recommendations, which can be vague and unspecific. Likewise, planning restrictions can actually be enforced to the detriment of the overall building quality. </p>
<p>At the moment, planning laws aren’t strong enough to provide truly sustainable environments that take human factors into account. Reform is long overdue, and designers, builders, planners and health professionals need to make a greater effort to find a more collective and coordinated way of working. But as a society, we must take joint responsibility: we can all make a start by learning how to change our our behaviour, to make the human aspects of sustainability a central part of our lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89554/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura B Alvarez works for Lathams and shares her material with NDSA and UDG.</span></em></p>Ventilation and natural light are two simple measures which can make buildings better for people to live and work in.Laura B. Alvarez, Architectural Technologist and Urban Designer, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/868622017-11-03T17:11:11Z2017-11-03T17:11:11ZHastings Pier has proved that local people can take control of the regeneration agenda – and win<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193208/original/file-20171103-1041-15mc8xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C461%2C4497%2C2848&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrfizzy/33234032821/sizes/l">MrFizzy/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I was blown away when I learned that Hastings Pier – once an abandoned and derelict Victorian relic – had won this year’s Stirling Prize. A community-led development has been officially declared the UK’s best new building. This victory demonstrates that excellent architecture and meaningful regeneration can be achieved through projects that are led by local citizens, and rooted in their communities. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193205/original/file-20171103-1008-vjnfke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193205/original/file-20171103-1008-vjnfke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193205/original/file-20171103-1008-vjnfke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193205/original/file-20171103-1008-vjnfke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193205/original/file-20171103-1008-vjnfke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193205/original/file-20171103-1008-vjnfke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193205/original/file-20171103-1008-vjnfke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">London Road Fire Station: inspiring.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajturner/880017578/sizes/l">Andrew Turner/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I came to know about Hastings Pier through my involvement in the campaign to save <a href="http://www.londonroadfire.org/">London Road Fire Station</a> in Manchester. These two very different structures have a few important things in common. </p>
<p>Both buildings are held in deep affection by their local communities; both recognised as having important heritage value by official bodies such as <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/caring-for-heritage/take-ownership/case-studies/hastings-pier">Historic England</a> – and both were left to decay.</p>
<p>Sadly, it is not unusual for significant buildings to be left to ruin for decades, when owners can’t or won’t act to sell or save them. Situations like these can be described as “difficult” or even “delinquent” ownership. </p>
<p>In such cases, the ownership of the site becomes a long-term stumbling block preventing regeneration – often with a knock-on effect to the wider area. Even where there is the investment and the political will to bring a building back into use, a project can be stalled permanently by a landowner who refuses to cooperate. </p>
<p>Local consultant Jericho Road Solutions, which was involved with the campaign to save Hastings Pier, established the <a href="http://www.cado-project.co.uk/">Community Assets in Difficult Ownership</a> (CADO) programme to work with ten such projects, including Hastings Pier and the London Road Fire Station. Between them, these ten buildings have been empty for <a href="http://www.cado-project.co.uk/about-cado/">a total of 224 years</a>, representing a loss to the economy of more than £1bn. </p>
<p>Local community groups associated with each project received grants, advice and mutual support to help them progress. </p>
<h2>People power</h2>
<p>Hastings Pier was eventually freed from its private owner, Ravenclaw, through the use of a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO). CPOs are legal powers available to local authorities, which can force land owners to sell land or buildings under certain circumstances. </p>
<p>A balance has to be struck between a person’s right to own property and the wider public interest. One example of when a CPO might be used would be to acquire land for major infrastructure projects, such as HS2. For this reason, CPOs can be viewed as a threat by local communities looking to protect their homes and land. But CPOs can also be used to buy a site needed to support urban regeneration, or to save a historic listed building which is in urgent need of repair. This latter mechanism was the one used to save Hastings Pier.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193206/original/file-20171103-1014-i6gltp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193206/original/file-20171103-1014-i6gltp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193206/original/file-20171103-1014-i6gltp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193206/original/file-20171103-1014-i6gltp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193206/original/file-20171103-1014-i6gltp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193206/original/file-20171103-1014-i6gltp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193206/original/file-20171103-1014-i6gltp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In desperate need of some TLC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jtweed/9738661346/sizes/l">jtweed/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Hastings, the pressure for the CPO actually came from the local community. Councils are often risk averse and prefer to avoid confrontational action such as CPOs – which can result in significant legal costs if things don’t go according to plan. </p>
<p>By 2011, the Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust (HPWRT) had been established, and was raising funds with the long term ambition of taking over the pier to run it as a community asset. But the project remained in limbo due to its “difficult owners”.</p>
<p>With expert advice on both sides and a series of productive meetings, the HPWRT and the local council came to an agreement. The necessary building repairs were identified and Ravenclaw were given an opportunity to carry them out. When this didn’t happen, the council was in a position to acquire the pier using a CPO. </p>
<p>The pier was then immediately transferred to the HPWRT, in what is known as a “back-to-back” agreement. The success of this strategy is a credit to the willingness of both parties to work hard at developing a constructive relationship and to try a new approach. </p>
<h2>Inspiring change</h2>
<p>The CADO programme <a href="http://www.cado-project.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/CADO-policy-ask-Jun-15.docx">has recommended</a> new laws to support the regeneration of buildings that are languishing under a “difficult owner”. </p>
<p>But until those changes can be made, I hope that local authorities and government can take confidence from the success in Hastings and view community groups as partners, working carefully to use enforcement powers that are already available to them. These strategies can secure the highest standards in architecture and – unlike much private investment in development and regeneration – the buildings belong to the community. </p>
<p>There are also lessons here for community activists. Those working to influence their local area often find themselves reacting to proposals by developers. Precious time and resources are consumed with this essential scrutiny work to fight inappropriate developments. But the story of Hastings Pier should inspire citizens everywhere, reminding them to sometimes take a proactive approach to pursuing the kind of built environment they yearn for.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86862/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Curtin is chair of the Friends of London Road Fire Station. She has received funding from the Community Assets in Difficult Ownership Programme for a project with the Friends of London Road Fire Station. She is affiliated with The Labour Party. </span></em></p>A community-led development has been officially declared the UK’s best new building.Emma Curtin, Architect and lecturer, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/864112017-10-26T13:28:04Z2017-10-26T13:28:04ZThe problem with London’s new Holocaust memorial<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192017/original/file-20171026-13315-k9o6bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The winning design: a journey.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adjaye Associates</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/adjaye-associates-and-ron-arad-architexts-win-uk-holocaust-memorial-international-design-competition">has announced</a> that Adjaye Associates and Ron Arad Architects have won the design competition for the new Holocaust memorial to be sited next to the Houses of Parliament. </p>
<p>The design is for a mainly underground space, beneath parkland, that leads visitors through into an exhibition and learning centre.</p>
<p>The winner announcement brings to an end the first stage of what has already been a contentious project. Concerns were raised regarding <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39417714">its location in Victoria Tower Gardens</a> and the Imperial War Museum has suggested that the new learning centre could <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/oct/07/imperial-war-museum-holocaust-memorial-london">end up duplicating</a> its own redesigned Holocaust exhibition.</p>
<p>But little public commentary has been given to the ways in which the memorial has been deliberately conceptualised as a “sacred site” and its highly politicised relationship with Britain’s religious landscape and ideas of national identity.</p>
<p>Explicit language of sacredness has surrounded the memorial project with remarkable consistency. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/398645/Holocaust_Commission_Report_Britains_promise_to_remember.pdf">report from the commission</a> set up by the prime minister that first proposed its construction repeatedly described Holocaust remembrance as “a sacred duty”. Meanwhile, the UK’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/international-design-competition-opens-for-new-uk-holocaust-memorial-beside-parliament">spoke of the project</a> as a chance “to create a sacred space for reflection”. Several shortlisted design teams <a href="https://competitions.malcolmreading.co.uk/holocaustmemorial/shortlist/john-mcaslan-partners-and-mass-design-group">used the word “sacred”</a> in their publicity videos and <a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/holocaust-memorial-contest-what-the-jury-heard/10023510.article">one architectural critic</a> even remarked that “the act of choosing a design itself held a sacred dimension”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192019/original/file-20171026-13331-1bfcopv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192019/original/file-20171026-13331-1bfcopv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192019/original/file-20171026-13331-1bfcopv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192019/original/file-20171026-13331-1bfcopv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192019/original/file-20171026-13331-1bfcopv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192019/original/file-20171026-13331-1bfcopv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192019/original/file-20171026-13331-1bfcopv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The memorial will become a ‘sacred site’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adjaye Associates</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But underlying such recurrent vocabulary lies a vision of the memorial as spiritually transformative or, to borrow the <a href="https://competitions.malcolmreading.co.uk/holocaustmemorial/shortlist/adjaye-associates-and-ron-arad-architects">language from the winning design team</a>: a “holistic sensorial and emotive journey.” Its plan includes a cavernous and dark “contemplation court” located within a larger underground complex that “envelops the visitor in the physical, intellectual and emotional experience”.</p>
<h2>Statement of ‘British values’</h2>
<p>Holocaust studies scholar <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137451354">Avril Alba has written</a> of how remembrance sites in America, Israel and Australia function as “negative epiphanies” designed to instil in visitors a renewed appreciation for their own present-day societies. First announced by a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-holocaust-memorial-will-stand-beside-parliament-as-permanent-statement-of-our-british-values">government press release</a> as a “permanent statement of our British values”, it is clear that the sacredness surrounding the London memorial is intended to empower a similarly reinvigorated view of Britain and its governance. </p>
<p>Several designs for the London memorial <a href="https://competitions.malcolmreading.co.uk/holocaustmemorial/shortlist/diamond-schmitt-architects">featured sunken courtyards</a> from which the visitor was pointedly positioned to catch sight of the looming Victoria Tower. Another included a vast <a href="https://competitions.malcolmreading.co.uk/holocaustmemorial/shortlist/allied-works">architectural echo of a traditional Jewish prayer shawl</a> that would deliberately frame the sight of the Houses of Parliament. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192022/original/file-20171026-13378-lzu8fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192022/original/file-20171026-13378-lzu8fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192022/original/file-20171026-13378-lzu8fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192022/original/file-20171026-13378-lzu8fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192022/original/file-20171026-13378-lzu8fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192022/original/file-20171026-13378-lzu8fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192022/original/file-20171026-13378-lzu8fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192022/original/file-20171026-13378-lzu8fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How the scheme will work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adjaye Associates</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/adjaye-associates-and-ron-arad-architexts-win-uk-holocaust-memorial-international-design-competition">description of the winning design</a> similarly emphasised that “on leaving the memorial, the circulation route ensures visitors will emerge to see the classic uninterrupted view of parliament – and the reality of democracy”. As the word “ensures” indicates, this will be a memorial journey in which a confrontation with historical horror is to be consciously partnered with a new and grateful encounter with an iconic landmark of British governance.</p>
<h2>The memorial and religious communities</h2>
<p>Yet if the new memorial is meant as a sacred location from which visitors are invited to emerge as (re)baptised inhabitants of British democracy, how does this all fit into the wider religious-secular landscape of the nation? Certainly the universal implications of remembrance were unambiguously clear in the minds of those that first proposed the memorial, with the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/398645/Holocaust_Commission_Report_Britains_promise_to_remember.pdf">commission report</a> declaring its desire to “realise a bold vision … that will resonate with people of all faiths, from all lands, for all times”.</p>
<p>But the relationship between the project’s ideological underpinnings and specific faith communities is more uneven than such declarations suggest. Prominent Jewish groups were actively consulted, but in contrast to the community-funded <a href="https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/hyde-park/things-to-see-and-do/memorials,-fountains-and-statues/holocaust-memorial">Holocaust memorial unveiled in Hyde Park</a> in 1983, the new memorial is a predominantly state-driven undertaking (paid for by the Department for Communities and Local Government).</p>
<p>With regard to Muslims and Christian communities, the memorial has particular relevance via its envisioning as a “permanent statement of our British values”. The contentious term “British values” has its roots in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-strategy-2011">anti-radicalisation policy</a> and, during her term as home secretary, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/a-stronger-britain-built-on-our-values">Theresa May made clear</a> that the antithesis of “British values” is Islamist extremism. “British values” has, as such, become bound up in what looks set to be <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionpublicsphere/2017/08/the-fbv-agenda-puts-schools-in-the-business-of-defending-not-critiquing-british-values/">a long-running debate</a> about the stigmatisation and othering of Muslims.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192026/original/file-20171026-13315-ijj0zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192026/original/file-20171026-13315-ijj0zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192026/original/file-20171026-13315-ijj0zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192026/original/file-20171026-13315-ijj0zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192026/original/file-20171026-13315-ijj0zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192026/original/file-20171026-13315-ijj0zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192026/original/file-20171026-13315-ijj0zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An open archive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adjaye Associates</span></span>
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<p>Both the former prime minster, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/easter-2016-david-camerons-message">David Cameron</a>, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/easter-2017-theresa-mays-message">and May</a> have expressly linked national values with Christian heritage. This is awkward if we think simultaneously of the Holocaust memorial as an attestation to “British values” and <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/holocaust-and-the-christian-world-9780826412997/">the deep history</a> of Jews having faced oppression at the hands of Christianity.</p>
<h2>Veneration of the state</h2>
<p>Underlying the interface between “British values” and public Holocaust memory is a fundamental point that, because of the side Britain fought on in World War II, remembrance of Nazi atrocities can appear to offer a moral clarity that ultimately bolsters national pride. Unlike other, messier aspects of British history (especially those <a href="http://www.ibtauris.com/books/biography%20%20true%20stories/biography%20general/autobiography%20general/the%20last%20man%20a%20british%20genocide%20in%20tasmania">concerned with colonialism and empire</a>) a sacred site of Holocaust remembrance is ripe with potential to empower veneration of the state. And as I’ve suggested, this is not something that has been consistently resisted among those involved with creation of the new memorial in London.</p>
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<p>In <a href="https://competitions.malcolmreading.co.uk/holocaustmemorial/shortlist/adjaye-associates-and-ron-arad-architects">the design video</a> that accompanied the original entry by the architects there is an oddly discordant moment when Ron Arad declares that: “We wanted something that is not trying to claim it for any kind of political purpose. We wanted to be free from that.” But he then muses: “Can you be free from that?” It’s hard to make sense of this comment in the context of a competition to build “a permanent statement of our British values” – in other words, one in which “political purpose” seems a part of its very conceptual origins.</p>
<p>But Arad’s awkward aside attests to the tensions that lie at the heart of the project. Is it a site that valuably remembers the voices of survivors at a time when living witnesses to the horrors of the Nazi era may very soon pass away? Or is it a political endeavour bound up in the formation of 21st-century national identity that risks uncritically venerating the state? The problem, I suggest, is that the new memorial may be both.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86411/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Tollerton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Making the memorial a ‘statement of British values’ risks confusing its purpose.David Tollerton, Lecturer in Jewish Studies and Contemporary Biblical Cultures, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.