C O N T E X T 1 1 3 : M A R C H 2 0 1 0 3 £5,000 for removing two fireplaces, and a total of £7,500 for other unauthorised changes. These included removing a simple Victorian cornice in the living room and replacing it with a modern ornate one. He also added details to the ceiling of the room, which were out of keeping with its style, and stripped down wood panels. Bernard agreed to pay costs of £6,000. The magistrates said the fine would have been £30,000 had Bernard not pleaded guilty. Productive landscapes An architectural initiative asserts that Scotland needs to think more creatively about new possibilities for transforming the industrial built environment to exploit the full potential of the country’s abundant natural resources. From the pits to fishing ports, seaweed, slate and recycled paper, seven projects mark the history and envision a new future for Scotland’s industrial sector. Spaces of Labour, which began its life as a series of mapping exercises with students at Strathclyde University’s department of architecture, has been developed into a touring exhibition, publication and website inviting a considered investigation of how capitalist work practices were organised spatially and of the architecture of the workplace. Jonathan Charley writes in the exhibition catalogue: ‘A simple shift in government policy can radically alter both industrial and environmental landscapes. Architecture has a crucially important role to play in terms of documentation, strategic planning and providing a visual language to accompany the possible new places of work and industrial production. ‘Despite the bizarre claims about the nature of the knowledge economy and the miraculous cure all service sectors, it is impossible to imagine a productive society and healthy economy without a vibrant manufacturing sector making useful things.’ In one of the projects, The Islands that Roofed theWorld, Fiona Beveridge examines the possibility of re-introducing the slate industry on the west coast of Scotland. Beveridge has established that even now around 40 per cent of Scotland’s housing stock is roofed in slate. But with no indigenous slate industry, dwindling quantities of reclaimed stock were being used for repairs, and cheaper but less durable foreign imports for replacements. Beveridge proposes the introduction of an initially mobile quarrying strategy centred on the islands of Luing, Easdale, Seil and Belnahua. This would allow the industry to develop gradually in a manner that is sensitive to context, she claims. The project estimates that a wellmaintained Scottish slate roof should last between 200 and 300 years. Slow down please BritishWaterways is asking motorists to slow down when crossing the 200-year-old hump-back bridges that span the historic canal network. Each year it spends up to £2.5 million fixing the damage. BritishWaterways, which looks after 1,800 historic bridges, estimates that at least two are struck every week. The growing number of bridge strikes comes at a time when there is reduced funding available to look after Britain’s 2,000 mile network of canals and rivers, which includes the UK’s third largest collection of listed structures, more than half of which are bridges. A bridge struck by a lorry on the Aylesbury arm of the Grand Union Canal An image from the Spaces of Labour exhibition Shutting up shop Ann Petherick has announced that she has finally taken the decision to close the website and bank account of the Living Over The Shop Project. ‘I’m admitting defeat,’ she told Context. ‘I have had no funding at all since 2005. It means that whenever someone does contact me, I have to say that I can’t help other than on a fee basis. Since no one is willing to pay, there doesn’t seem much that I can do.’ Petherick adds: ‘It’s an irony indeed in the present housing situation.’ To avoid damaging the medieval archaeology in the cathedral grounds, Hopkins Architects were briefed to build off the original foundations, rather than new footings. The new wall has an Ancaster rag-stone face to both sides, with a continuous Clipsham limestone sill running the length of the glazing above. The new structure provides a community meeting place, and a conference and education centre. The construction work was carried out by Cambridge-based restoration and building contractors Rattee and Kett. Fine for damaging listed house Damaging the character of a house has cost a landlord £22,500 after he admitted breaching listed building consent at Richmond Magistrates’ Court. Alan Bernard had been given permission by Richmond Council in 2007 for a rear extension and minor alterations for a Grade II listed Victorian villa. Richmond Council found he had made many more changes to the building. Magistrates fined Bernard for the damage and issued him with an enforcement notice from Richmond Council ordering him to return the property to its original condition at his own cost within six months. Councillor Geoff Acton, Richmond Council’s cabinet member for environment, said: ‘Bernard was given guidelines on what he was allowed to do to this house and he massively overstepped the mark. These were not just small changes. They were a series of works which left the front of the building looking altogether different and the inside being significantly affected. ‘Securing a conviction like this is rare and difficult to achieve, but the heavy fine should send a warning to anyone else tempted to damage houses like this which are part of our irreplaceable heritage. Bernard now has a criminal record and a large bill to put right what he’s done.’ Bernard was fined £10,000 for re-pointing the property in a style and colour inappropriate for the area and the building. Further fines included
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