The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain Presents: A Palimpsest for London

In London, a sterile conservation protocol functions under a narcissistic tendency towards nostalgia. This deceitful practice presents the reading of history as linear and static, unaltered and unaltering. The project contests this condition, presenting a palimpsest that will wake London up from its architectural hibernation.

In 2015, a group of young historians took control of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. Being disillusioned with the theoretical rigidness and unidirectional progress of London, they challenged the governing presence of history, citing Koolhaas’ Delirious New York as an alternative approach to the production of architecture and the development of the city. They wrote: London is a museum, preserved under a hermetic glass roof! As a result, the potential of the immediate future is repressed, infinitely delayed. In Koolhaas’ Delirious New York, the model of Coney Island was presented as a testing ground for Manhattan. The implications on Manhattan and its resulting roles as incubator and as catalyst will become the protagonist that will wake London up from its architectural hibernation. We present The Depository to showcase London’s multi-faceted history. The proposal contests the current reading and application of history through unearthing, adapting, reconstructing and representing. This manner of integrating past, present and future attempts to create a mosaic of experiences that rediscovers the past while simultaneously scripting a new future. The key architectural features of the Depository consist of a new Headquarters for the SAHGB, an archaeological undertaking on a site-specific landscape that reconstructs fragments of London’s Roman Amphitheatre and a Museum Quarry that will house historical artifacts of all scales, from objects to elements of architecture to buildings. The program is described in three stages, subdivided into six phases, spanning across a period of sixty years. Each phase responds to arguments concerning issues of site-specificity, authorship and conservation values, the presentation of the object and subject matter, as well as the documentation and preservation of knowledge. By setting up a platform that provokes evolution, the glass roof that has frozen London into an architectural glazier will finally be broken. This is the model of the future. Yours Faithfully, The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain