Listed buildings, houses within a conservation area: issues one deals with repeatedly specially when working in central London. However, at least in my case, it is true to say that one is often guilty of not addressing the "concept", simply aiming at the "result". For some reason, a Chelsea mock-Georgian house has allowed me the time to notice my shallow approach. I've been trawling the internet and talking to people about the whole idea of conservation boundaries. Picket fences around buildings deemed to be of note (often by non-specialised professionals who possibly are unsure about exactly.... which note). Electric fences around sections of somebody's home which, therefore, they only partially own. More like a person whose destiny one can never totally control, than like a house - a material possession which can be moulded around wishes and made to conform to our plans.
An article* by Julian Holder points out how distinctly anthropomorphic are most of the concepts applied to buildings by conservation enthusiasts. "Can a building really be 'compromised', its 'integrity' questioned, its 'character' altered?" He adds that "to accept the[se] concepts ensures that all the participants are already treating buildings as people, as living breathing beings, whose fate we care about, and not simply as bricks and lime mortar. At its best it is a linguistic slight of hand....... At its worst it is a transparently bullying misappropriation which fails to impress the hard headed and leaves conservation looking distinctly amateur".
I must confess that the house which started this whole thought process is, indeed, one of those houses one would describe as "honest". Clearly not in the human sense of the word; more so to describe its simple declaration of intents. My view is that remaining identical to oneself is not necessarily the ideal state for man-kind. I therefore doubt this can be ideal for a utilitarian, perfectly coherent, teen ager (if house years are worth half as much as dog years) of a residential property.
* The Building Conservation Directory 2001
http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/pdf_concept/concept.pdfGeneral descriptions: listed building and conservation area.
http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/conplng/conplng.htm
