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The Traditional House Under Threat?
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THE FUTURE OF THE TRADITIONAL HOUSE If this exhibition manages to persuade 10% of people who see it, to think more about their traditional house and increase their respect for its character, then this exhibition will not have been in vain. However 10% of hopefully a few thousand people who view the exhibition will not help to counter the enormous destruction of traditional houses that is happening at present. Even with the alleged increase in interest in 'old houses' it seems nothing is stemming this destruction. The following sections are simply ideas for the future that may help save more traditional houses. LEGISLATIVE PROTECTION: In Birmingham there are over 17000 listed buildings, only a fraction of these are domestic houses. Statutory listing is designed to protect by law any building that is threatened with insensitive alterations to its outside and inside (contrary to popular belief). Demolition is usually resisted, but it is a worrying trend that many listed buildings are receiving quite bad alterations within planning law which often ought to be refused. But this is a separate problem and the point about listed buildings here is that very few houses are protected, and it would not be possible to protect whole swafes of houses in this way. This is where Conservation Area control becomes valuable, which attempts to protect groups of houses of character. Birmingham has 26 such Conservation Areas; more are in the pipeline, which is encouraging. However of the 26 only about 2 have controls over door and window removal! This is a crazy situation, and as this exhibition has demonstrated, these features are crucial to house character. Future CA legislation should ensure that this anomaly is removed and the so called 'permitted development' rights on these features (i.e. removal) is controlled. ESTATE AGENTS: Estate agents can be seen as 'agents' to much house destruction. Scanning through any house sale brochure one comes across the all too familiar phrasing: 'House require updating ' (this usually means the house retains much of its character!) Or 'fully modernised but retaining some original features (e.g. often little character left?). Some descriptions of spoilt houses used by estate agents need scrutinising by the Advertising Standards Authority for their gross inaccuracy! It is a fact that much house destruction follows quickly after a house has changed hands. Often the biggest offenders are people who are really after space potential, they pick on the older house since usually they are bigger. Attempts are then made to create a large 'modern' house, often with disastrous consequences. Perhaps it's too much to ask of estate agents, who are driven commercially, to respond the challenge of trying to better match houses to clients by asking such simple questions as : 'Do you require a modern or traditional house?' THE MEDIA'S ROLE: Surely one of the most effective ways of raising awareness on the plight of the traditional house is through the media, in all its forms. Some coverage of this problem has occurred in certain quality newspapers over the past few years, but it is still almost entirely neglected by television and the more widely read tabloids. There must be enormous scope to do relatively cheap budget TV on the problem by linking it into the evolution and history of the domestic house. These sorts of programmes are long overdue, what is needed is an equivalent of the Antiques Road Show, perhaps a 'The Traditional house Show' where a group of experts travel the country looking at unspoilt vernacular house styles, and how they came to be. This idea might be fanciful but it does surely have some merit in trying to raise awareness. |
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