Faye Davies to speak at Concrete Futures for Modernist Buildings conference
We are pleased to announce that Faye Davies, BFF’s Managing Director and Specialist Conservation Architect, will be speaking at the Heritage Network’s forthcoming ‘Concrete Futures for Modernist Buildings’ conference at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes.
The Heritage Network is a UK-wide membership organisation supporting community organisations, charities and social enterprises to restore, reuse and manage historic buildings and places for the benefit of their communities. Through peer-to-peer learning, knowledge sharing and networking, it brings together organisations and individuals delivering innovative heritage projects across the country.
The Concrete Futures for Modernist Buildings conference will explore how communities, architects, heritage specialists and grassroots organisations are finding new futures for modernist buildings that are increasingly at risk. Through talks, tours, case studies and discussion, the event will consider the challenges of reuse, the importance of collective action and the potential of modernist architecture to support sustainable and inclusive communities.
Faye’s invitation to speak reflects BFF’s experience in supporting the conservation and sustainable reuse of significant historic buildings. She will share the story of the restoration and adaptive reuse of the Grade II listed Iron Duke Public House in Great Yarmouth, exploring how conservation-led design and viable new uses can bring a much-loved modernist building back into active community use.
Bringing the Iron Duke back into use
The Iron Duke is a Grade II listed Art Deco public house in Great Yarmouth, designed in the 1930s and finally completed in 1948. Once a popular local landmark, it closed in 2008 and subsequently suffered from prolonged vacancy and deterioration before being acquired by the Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust.
BFF are leading its conservation and restoration, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, to bring the building back into active use. The proposals retain its distinctive architectural character while creating a viable pub and restaurant, self-catering accommodation and opportunities for heritage skills, training and community engagement.
The project explores a challenge facing many twentieth-century buildings: how do we conserve something valued for what it was, while allowing it to change enough to have a viable future? At the Iron Duke, repair, adaptation and a renewed commercial use are being brought together to secure the building’s long-term survival and return a much-loved modernist landmark to the community.