Building in context

Sit Stuart Lipton, CABE chair (1999 - 2004), talks about the document's goal of encouraging high standards of design in historically sensitive contexts.

Introduction

Delighted to be able to welcome you here this morning, to the launch of Building in Context: New development in historic areas.

This document sets out to demonstrate through excellent illustrations and case studies the fact that our heritage is a continuum - that new and old have always co-existed and that we should not be afraid of putting excellent new buildings next to familiar old ones.

I can think of at least ten examples of this within the square mile in which we are standing all of which demonstrate that it is design quality and not style that matters.

The aim of this publication is to encourage everyone involved in the creation of new buildings - clients, architects, planners, planning committee members - to aim for high standards of design when new development takes place in historically sensitive contexts. This has been achieved in the building we're in now and in other big public projects in London, like the British Museum Great Court, the Imagination Building, the National Portrait Gallery and Somerset House.

But it's not all about large scale projects in the Capital. It is about the countless places around the country, on a smaller scale where high quality new buildings have made a positive different to their environment. These are the focus of Building in Context. They demonstrate how historic areas don't have to be preserved in aspic; how thoughtful modern buildings don't have to be pastiche and can have their own identity; how they can not only fit in with their surroundings, but enhance them. There is great value in these buildings - not just aesthetic, but also social, economic and environmental.

This has been a theme of much of CABE's research - also illustrated in the publication's case studies.

For example:

• The Bridlington Foreshore development by Bauman Lyons has proved to be important in reversing the town's image as a declining, down-market, old-fashioned seaside town
• Abbots Cottages in Corfe Castle has provided much-needed affordable housing for local people in a picturesque Dorset village
• A supermarket in Ludlow, where good design was used to make sure that a bulky use sits comfortably in a medieval market town where virtually all other buildings are considerably smaller
• And Victoria Hall in Hanley, a bold extension to a Grade II listed concert hall in a run-down area that is acting as the catalyst for its regeneration

These are good quality buildings in historic but living areas that:

• Enhance the built environment
• Improve people's lives
• And are economically successful

That's why the examples in Building in Context sit so comfortably with what CABE is all about and what we want to see more of.

Building in Context is just the latest in a number of publications and initiatives we are working on with English Heritage. As the government advisers charged with advising on the old and new in the built environment, the core message in this new publication is at the heart of both of our activities. It has been a pleasure to work so fruitfully again with our partners at English Heritage.