Review 2023: Bring Forth the Best, Today
by Matt Osmont
This year’s Review sets out to celebrate some of the people of Insall and highlight how we support and enable our people to manage change in the historic environment in line with Sir Donald’s philosophy as outlined in ‘Living Buildings’. Limiting the number of articles to just 11 has proved to be one of this year’s most challenging tasks!
To conserve is to evolve
Donald defines our work approach and captures it in the idea of ‘Living Buildings’. This is the belief that change is continuous and that buildings are, in effect, ‘alive’. Every project is unique, and our approach is always tailored accordingly, under the guiding umbrella of balancing the preservation of a building or place with the need for considered intervention to ensure its continued vitality. The way we creatively manage change is rooted in our understanding of a building or place; this means researching and analysing its history, purpose, materials, construction, aesthetic qualities, setting, use, and condition.
We aim to ensure that the legacy contained within our historic environment is passed on to future generations. Minimising the threat of deterioration, obsolescence, disaster, or thoughtless alteration is critical. Our innovative approach to working in the historic environment often involves careful consideration of this range of interventions and the potential value of watchful inaction or monitoring.
Evolving a 65-year-old practice
It seems only fitting to use Donald’s motto of “bring forth the best” to showcase some of our recent work to you.
Whilst the recent technological advances in artificial intelligence can seem intimidating, we have seen this year that we will always need our pragmatic, passionate, personable and professional people to help our clients and communities manage change within their historic environment.
Insall’s regional studio model means that local buildings benefit from our national pool of knowledge and expertise whilst allowing flexibility, creativity and adaptability to address and understand local needs, pressures and possibilities. We are among the most fortunate architects and historic building specialists in the country, being able to work with the best clients on the most important buildings in our respective regions.
Much like the significant historic assets we manage, our practice is very much alive. We hope you enjoy reading the following articles as much as we did curating them!
Read the full 2023 publication here, or take a look at our articles below…
