11/04/2025
An account of the second session of RSUA Conference, Architecture 2025: Reuse and Revitalise by Natalie O’Rourke, Senior Conservation Architect, Historic Environment Division.
A re-use first approach to planning
John Walker, former director of Planning, Westminster Council
Fresh from our coffee and pastries, John Walker took us on a whirlwind tour of adaptation case studies. Cautioning us against a ‘Re-use only’ attitude, he advised us to weigh up the options and consider whether in fact ‘Re-use first’ gives the flexibility for developers to consider both options – and see that quite often re-use comes up as the best solution anyway.
John brought us along through a story of re-use and re-activity of buildings, streets and places in Westminster, observing how sometimes the rewards of re-use were a by-product of change, not necessarily the driving force. Faster construction and saving money were the usual incentives, but sense of history, prolonged lifespan for carbon savings, stopping urban sprawl and the social investment in people’s history, supporting identity and pride in places .. these were just ‘by the way’.
He pointed out that ‘sometimes you can achieve great gains by doing very little’ – showing us pedestrian crossings installed at Picadilly which brought profits up by 25%, and letting strategies in Regent Street which changed nothing – except the tenants.. and thus, the socio-economic profile of visitors… and as a result transforming the quality of the environment. In other places investing in small, high-quality additions can transform existing buildings like the Zaha Hadid designed coffee pavilion at The Magazine in Hyde Park.
Overall the message was to use existing buildings not to stagnate and ‘keep things stuck the same’ but to use them as a resource to move forward, adapting and changing them as necessary to act as a basis for quality transformation. The advice was couched too towards new buildings – going forward we should as architects design buildings to be adaptable, so that one day in the future new uses (ones that we may not even know about yet) can give places a ‘glow up’ too.
Unlocking the potential of Ireland’s rural towns
Valerie Mulvin, Director McCullough Mulvin Architects
Its no secret that as Conservation Architect in HED I would choose to write about the section of the RSUA conference featuring my long-time Group 91 idol – Valerie Mulvin, author of ‘Lost Tradition’. Caught up in my fandom, poor Valerie even tolerated me gushing at her as she caught her taxi to leave – I was so looking forward to hearing her talk, and she did not disappoint – ‘thank youooo…’ I shouted after her.
There is something lyrical in the way she spoke, a fully formed composition came across through the musical tone of her voice, describing the evolution of small towns in Ireland. Her quiet, poetic words then led us with a gradual quickening pace through the story arc of dereliction towards a solution – a rethink and rebirth of towns. Through the verses she described the initial fortress-like character of Irish towns which evolved through history into charming ‘approximate formality’ ‘..their politics and history laid out at once.’ ‘What is it to be in a town?’ she asked us, describing the traditional grouping of church, market house and square. ‘What is most important?’ she asked us too. The ‘spaces in between’, outdoor rooms where life becomes place is the answer. Sure, inarguable and almost embarrassingly obvious, of course we should be using what we have, of course we should make the most of this resource and given the wealth of our historic towns why on earth would we not? The talk went on to describe the travelling exhibition ‘Talk of the Town’ which we can hope will come to Belfast. This is a strategy to engage people, spark discussion, provoke and excite ‘ways in’ to solving the housing crisis, ‘returning to identity’ whilst re-occupying some of the prettiest streets, buildings and squares in Europe.
The Scottish Experience
Phil Prentice, Founding Chief Executive of Scotland’s Town Partnership
The reassurance began in the opening line of Phil Prentice’s talk. ‘I’m from Armagh’ he said. Now that we could trust him, he went on to explain that he feels Scotland is ‘about 5 years ahead of Northern Ireland’ – so get ready for what will be a positive rethink around revitalising towns. There are similarities; like us, Scotland is a ‘a nation of towns’ and ‘Scotland loves local’. And to prove that these two strengths could shape a strategy, he went on to describe the importance of understanding demographics, gathering data about Scottish towns, how planning, understanding and having a vision could bring about change.
Using Oban as a case study, (population 8,000 Nov-March, 20,000 the rest of the year) he described how the Scottish Towns Partnership were a ‘cheap but valuable’ moveable team who went to the places like Oban that need them most – a small group who acted ‘as a disruptor, not another agency’. Here the town was transformed through celebrating its rich industrial, whiskey distilling heritage, in a prime location which is the gateway to a wild Scottish landscape that is bigger than Belgium.
There were other examples – Campbelltown and Argyll used the vehicle of community-led heritage regeneration to become ‘Scotland’s Most Improved’ towns. Building on quirky, individual characteristics, but also on an understanding of demographics, strategies were individually tailored by the STP to each place – for example young people looking for starter homes and the elderly wanting to live in accessible, characterful town centres.
Panel Discussion
In the questions and answers which followed, Valerie looked back to her Group 91 days in Dublin (cue a ‘sigh’ of delight from me), telling us that in Temple Bar they made a conscious decision to ‘chase the users’ – creating a mix of uses that were not the most profitable in terms of money, but were the best investment in place. There was discussion about the barriers to these solutions – ‘the ordinary barriers can build into big ones when combined’, and the value then of collaborating from the outset, getting the right people, often in authority, ‘out of their silos and into a room’ to agree a shared vision from the beginning. When asked ‘What measures could force change?’ John replied that Compulsory Purchase Orders were used – though more often as a threat – to get owners who were sitting on and neglecting assets to budge. In Scotland, the support of government who act on ‘Compulsory Sales Orders’ supported by a financial pot to back the ‘Community Right to Buy’ works to regenerate vacant heritage buildings. The final thought for the day came from John: ‘You are only as good as your politicians – incentivise your politicians to understand that planning is the key to growth.’
