Műemlék lakóházak (Az Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1994 Eger, 1994)

DARYL FLOWER: Living in Monuments, a British Perspective

For a moment let us consider those larger houses. Frequently when a large house has come to the end of its economic life, either as a dwelling or as a school or some other conversion that has already taken place, it may still be surrounded by a large amount of land. This land sometimes is extremely attractive for the preparation of what are called 'enabling developments'. Here we have to counter the problems of development greed. The development of the and is always the easy option. But far too often what happens, certainly in our Country, is a company will buy the main house; they will obtain planning permission for a lucrative development in the grounds that will reputably fund the conservation; they will carry out that development; they will pass the ownership of the main house to a separate legal entity; maybe sell it at a nominal figure; they will then take the profit from enabling development; the company that owns the house will go into liquidation and the house will come back on the market via the receivers of the bankrupt company. This time without its land, so the development in the grounds can not be used to rescue the house again. This pattern is frequently repeated in many forms and is often not recognised by the controlling authorities until it's too late. A large building itself can frequently be broken up into units. The main issues that are concerned are the retention of the plan form, the preservation of historic features, maybe sometimes the fossilisation of historic features where you simply can't preserve them. Perhaps the cornice could be preserved above the lowered ceiling that may be necessary in the bathroom and toilets. Crating apartments and subdividing of large houses in to separate ownerships tends to mean that the possibility of a later re-assembly of the units is a far off dream, but it does mean that the house has survived. Re-assembly is not impossible, it has happened from time to time. So what about the smaller houses. In the smaller buildings, we are really talking about the continuity of use. Sometimes for perhaps five of six centuries, these buildings have provided homes and been capable of adapting to the changing demands of comfort and style of the occupiers. Here a much softer approach is required for success. The principal issues tend to be extensions and alterations, sometimes in keeping, sometimes not. This then raises problems of design. If we start loking at the principal of the ethics of extension and applying the international charters I mentioned earlier, I would suggest in many areas they probably don't work. The debate about style could easily side track us today and I would suggest that in terms of the preservation issue, the style, if the development is reversible may not be a relevant issue if the preservation of the historic building is our main objective. Then there is the unusual. Sometimes Churches have to be converted for use. Or what about the Follies of the eighteenth century. A particularly popular method of conversion of these rather peculiar buildings is for Holiday Homes. In Britain we are famous for the Landmark Trust, which has now extended its activités into Italy. This is a particularly good use, because, for an occasional occupation based on a holiday style of living you don't have to provide the same level of facilities that are required for a house for general family use. Frequently, we are concerned with preserving what we call the First Generation of development. This will vary from country to country. In Canada for example the First Generation House can often be as recent as the 1880s, but it still represents a key part of the development of a particular town or region, worthy of preservation. Frequentlv the attempts to preserve these houses is having to deal with development pressures and architectural preferences for a toally different lifestyle. In London for example First Generation Houses can date to the 1700s, directly expansion starts outside the Roman city walls. Here buildings were originally built as grand town houses, and have now moved to a use as offices and