Heritage and Place
The Heritage and Place Research Group supports heritage research that is dynamic and “future-focused”, concentrating on subject areas that are linked to sustainability, cultural identity and social cohesion – connecting past, present and future. In addition to publications, the research group provides a home to practice-based and policy-led research, engaging with issues such as adaptive reuse, retrofit, conservation-led regeneration and community participation. Though the research group is wide-ranging in its remit, it forms the natural place for interdisciplinary heritage scholarship which is positioned at the intersection between “people, places and things.”
In this episode of Deconstructed, host Matthew Lloyd Roberts is joined by Shukri Sultan, a lecturer at Westminster University, to explore the story of Almanaar Mosque in West London. Together, they unpack how this unassuming building became a vital hub for faith, community, and resilience — especially in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.
Shahed Saleem leads a conversation, unpacking the themes and ideas of his latest published collection of essays and photographs, Building Futures: The Counter Architecture of the British Mosque. The discussion will explore how migrants and diasporas create space and community, and how the post-war multicultural consensus in Britain has been shaped and challenged through the intersections of race, politics and architecture.
When heritage sites are destroyed or damaged, such catastrophic events often prompt calls for restoration. Globally, the number of heritage sites at risk or already lost is staggering. Notre Dame has been expensively restored since the 2019 fire, but such care is not always possible or appropriate. In restoring a building, what and when is being restored? The building the day before the fire or the bomb? Or the building upon the day of completion? These questions were considered through a discussion of Clandon Park – an 18th century National Trust property, almost totally destroyed by fire in 2015.
Over the last 4 years I have held public events in galleries and museums where architectural themes and ideas have been displayed, narrated and discussed. In the presentation I describe some of these events, and how they were both a representation of traditional research, and also generators of new architectural knowledge co-produced through engagement with the public.
Future for Religious Heritage, March 2024
In the UK, as in countries across the world, former cinemas have been widely reused as places of worship. While there has been some research into the reuse of cinemas as churches, there has been little work on the broad repurposing of this building type for different faith groups. This article considers the way that buildings offer a snapshot of faith and society in the twenty-first century and reveals the extent to which religious adherence is, in fact, growing in many of Britain’s cities.
The Conversation, May 15th 2024
Feature article on research findings from the project ‘Moving pictures: reusing cinemas as places of worship in the diaspora.’
This conference paper explored whether a current trend for white interiors suggests new directions in the social and religious cultures of Christianity. To examine this, the paper discussed three recently refurbished churches in London as case studies, through which to explore these questions: St John-at-Hackney; St Augustine’s, Hammersmith.
