What do they do: There have always been architects whose main interest has been old buildings but the past couple of years has seen a rise in both the demand and the availability of a recognised new category of architect - the conservation architect. Bernice Harrison reports.
Demand is certainly strong, both in Dublin where whole suburbs have been listed by planners as worth protecting, but also among new owners of large period country houses who are prepared to take on sometimes massive renovation and conservation work.
I first came across the work of conservation architect Anne Fletcher in a house on Dublin's Dartmouth Road which sold recently for close to €4 million. The owners of the Victorian redbrick bought the house because of its period features and charm but, like most people, weren't prepared to do without the latest creature comforts which, in this case, didn't just include several power showers but also featured a home cinema and a sophisticated security system.
In the end, Ms Fletcher and her colleagues at the Coady Partnership achieved such a perfect mix of new and old that the project won a coveted Opus award for restoration.
"Usually people who buy old houses are sympathetic to the demands of conservation," says Ms Fletcher, adding that often one of a conservation architect's first tasks is explaining that, with an old building, compromise is just about always required.
In Dartmouth Road, for example, despite the opulence elsewhere, there are no large bathrooms because the house just didn't allow for that - too much would have had to be destroyed or sacrificed to make way for one. Once she put forward viable alternatives - in this case, small, ultra-modern bathrooms filled with natural light - the clients were delighted. A large part of every job is about knowing what can be done both in terms of the building and the strict planning requirements that come with old houses.
Modern technologies can do more harm than good to old buildings, so the bonus of going with a conservation architect is that they understand old materials, from lime render to sash windows and, equally importantly, they know how to find the appropriate people to do whatever work is necessary.
She says that both materials and techniques have changed greatly over the years. The widespread use of chemicals to "cure" everything from rising damp to dirty walls is decreasing rapidly thanks partly, she says, to the sterling leadership in this area shown by English Heritage. She gives the example of dry rot, which she describes as "a sensitive fungus". In the past, there would have been massive and horrendously expensive work to chemically treat it or cut it out, but a conservation architect is more likely to stand back and assess why the rot is there in the first place, and remove the damp conditions in which the rot has been breeding.
The architect, who has been practising for 20 years, clearly has no time for people who feel that having a house that is a protected structure is a burden. "In other countries people see it as having a treasure," she says. The architectural practice where she works typically takes on very large domestic or commercial jobs - two current ones on the books include a house at Clarinda Park in Dún Laoghaire and the conversion of an old courthouse in Carrick-on-Shannon.
However, homeowners looking for advice on small scale jobs will always find a choice of architects from the RIAI, the architects' professional body, which is presently compiling a register of architects who have the relevant skills and experience that qualifies them to add the prefix "conservation" to their titles.
Ann Fletcher, the Coady Partnership. Tel: 4976766. RIAI: www.riai.ie.
