ABSTRACT OF PAPER FOR ICOMOS CONFERENCE IN MADRID, JUNE 2011
Erno Goldfinger’s Trellick Tower
in the north of Kensington and Chelsea is a Council owned listed building in
social tenancy that is facing problems of funding conservation and maintenance
programmes. One of many ‘solutions’ to this has been a suggestion to sell the
building to a private developer; this is being heavily resisted by residents
and local Councillors alike. New approaches need to be found. This paper
reviews the debates and controversies surrounding this scheme under the
headings of SOFT – HARD – and PLASTIC. Beginning with issues of the
conservation and reinstatement of social purpose, meaning and identity, and how
these can both complicate and clarify motivating forces, the paper then turns
to the physical and material conservation issues that define it, and finally the
need for ongoing efficient management and financial stability, without which
the building could again fall into disrepair.