About this event
RIBA South Conservation Group - What architects produce in terms of documentary material and why and how this should be valued
For this month's talk, we will be joined by Damien Blower, Stedman Blower and Jonathan Makepeace, RIBA Library.
Damien will describe why the material produced by architects – models, drawings, photographs - is valuable and why it is important to share such material. He will then sketch out some of the (inter)nationally important work being done around the world which is increasingly valuing these materials, both as art objects as well as important documentary evidence.
From a national (even international) perspective Jonathan will then describe what the RIBA do (at Portland Place and V&A), both their digital and physical record, and how this material is still used and relevant.
Damien will then finish the talk about a local context and how he has been doing a bottom-up archive conservation project through the Blower Foundation.
The Q&A will then invite observations and sharing ideas for how these two very different archives can develop and remain relevant.
About the speakers
Damien Blower of Stedman Blower is a practising Architect in the South Downs National Park, specialising in designing buildings in and round heritage fabric. In tandem with this, he is the founding trustee of the Blower Foundation, a registered UK charity dedicated to the preservation of artefacts produced by architects as they go about the daily business of representing their ideas on paper and in other media.
Jonathan Makepeace is Imaging Services Manager at the RIBA Library with particular responsibility for the management and development of the online image database RIBApix. Previously Assistant Curator of the RIBA Photographs Collection he studied History of Architecture at Newcastle University. He has curated or co-curated exhibitions including: Cathedral of Power: The Rise and Fall of Battersea Power Station; Eric de Maré: The Exploring Eye; Puttin’ on the Glitz; Through the Shop Window and Unlock London.
Image: Macdonald’s Almshouses, West Street, Farnham, Surrey (Circa 1905/6), by Arthur J Stedman (1868-1858) for George Edward Macdonald Will Trust © The Blower Foundation
