Future Heritage Film
Following a closed symposium on 16 June, yet another phase of the seed research project Future Heritage has now been completed. This has resulted in a short film commissioned by the School of Architecture that features fascinating interviews with users of four 1960s buildings in the Merseyside region:
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, University of Liverpool
- Wyncote Sports Pavilion Geoffrey Hughes Athletics Ground, Liverpool
- Cedarwood, Liverpool
- Bebington Central Library, Wirral
Interviewees were asked to talk about their experience and personal appreciation of each building in relation to its listed status and/or its earlier awards. Despite this film being far from a statistically robust opinion survey, or any deep research analysis, the interviews have allowed researchers to be pleasantly surprised by witnessing genuine appreciation of most of these buildings, as well as widely known scepticism towards this most recent part of our architectural heritage.
The project has been a collaboration between the Liverpool School of Architecture and the Merseyside Civic Society and was funded by the University’s Knowledge Exchange & Impact Vouchers 2015-16 scheme. It adopts the term "Future Heritage", as coined in the independent Farrell Review of Architecture and the Built Environment (2014), that aims to broaden our understanding of heritage as including the "whole grain of the existing built environment" and also considers contemporary architecture as what will become our heritage in the future. It therefore embraces architectural heritage and new architecture as two integral parts of the continuous evolution of our built environment. Both these elements relate to the provision of civic amenities and to the enhancement of our sense of place; and should acknowledge and reflect community-based values. In this connection, the project focuses on the cultural value of architecture and heritage and their contribution to the social sustainability of local communities.
For more information please see the project website.
Future Heritage film is available in two parts to view here: