Building on the Built: Donald Insall Associates

In June 2022 we will be joined by Matthew Vaughan of Donald Insall Associates, one of the world’s leading specialist architectural firms focused on the care, repair, adaptation and conservation of historic buildings. Established over 60 years ago the practice has pioneered a creative approach to conservation, centred on the belief that change is continuous and buildings are, in effect, ‘alive’.
Matthew’s experience of the difficult work of analysing and reordering complex buildings, within the contexts of preservation and regeneration, has led him to explore the relationship between the desire for fidelity to existing historic fabric and what could be called the self-expression of those making the intervention within it.
Illustrated with examples of the work Donald Insall Associates, Matthew’s talk will revolve around three key thinkers in the field; John Ruskin, Viollet le Duc and Robert Venturi, uncovering the ‘complexity and contradiction’ inherent in conservation work. Informed by the notion of ‘reluctant self-expression’ Matthew’s talk will explore how the absence, or failure of, dogma does not necessarily lead simply to the liberalisation of the architect working with historic fabric, but rather towards a flexible application of self-expression, that can remain constantly in service to the monument itself.