A whirlwind of activity at Dumfries House

Posted 19th May 2008 15:44pm by Mike Schafer

By Mike Schafer, Chief Executive of The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust

Since taking up the reigns of Dumfries House in January, I have been caught up in a whirlwind of activity to prepare the house for the public opening in the summer. A great deal has been achieved since the house was purchased last year by the consortium, led by HRH The Prince of Wales, but there is still much more to do. We’re also very keen to involve the local community and recently held a public consultation on the plans for the development of related land.

The house itself is one of the most architecturally significant stately homes within the UK. It was designed by the renowned 18th Century architect brothers John, Robert and James Adam, and was built between 1754 and 1760 for the 5th Earl of Dumfries. What is of equal importance is the furniture collection, as here we hold the most important collection of works from Thomas Chippendale’s Director period.

Most of these pieces remain in their original position in the house and are all stunning items. No other museum or country house can match the content and quality of our collection and makes the preservation of Dumfries House even more pertinent for Scottish cultural history. The BBC will be filming an episode of the Antiques Roadshow here later in the year and I’m sure they’ll have plenty of delights to discover within the house alone.

It’s incredibly exciting to see the plans coming together and will be such a satisfying moment for all of us involved to see the first visitors come through the doors. I personally can’t wait for everyone to see with their own eyes just how special Dumfries House is…

Click here to visit The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust website.
 

Turquoise Mountain: two years on

Posted 19th May 2008 15:23pm

By Rory Stewart, Chief Executive of Turquoise Mountain

The Prince of Wales and President Karzai established the Turquoise Mountain in late January 2006. I moved to Kabul a week later to set up the foundation. By the end of the month, we had rented the empty front room of a tailoring shop and hired one employee.

In 2008, we have over 250 staff. We have brought services, a clinic and a school to the community of Murad Khane (the old city area where we work), restored over 50 historic buildings, held international exhibitions and sold Afghan art on three continents. We have cleared 8000 trucks of garbage out of the old city, dropping the street level by seven feet and creating near total employment for every unemployed adult male in the area. We had 550 applicants for 30 places this year in our Institute. The Institute is now established as Afghanistan’s leading arts and crafts school, and we have been asked by the Minister of Education to redevelop other craft vocational schools in Kabul.

Only a year ago, odds seemed heavily against us. The old city was still scheduled for demolition, in line with a 1976 East German masterplan. Landlords were reluctant to let us repair their houses. Craft exports were crippled by logistical problems and high costs. Our tiny management team were young short-term volunteers. It was almost impossible to persuade architects or craftsmen to move to Kabul. At one point, we were within three weeks of running out of our money.

Now there is real confidence and energy. Each time I return from a trip I find a dozen unexpected and successful innovations. The Afghan government has registered the Institute and put a protection order on Murad Khane. The Canadian government has committed three million dollars to the project.

On each street corner in the old city, a thousand daily interactions combine trade and religion, public space and private space, female shoppers and traditional craft producers. Development in this neighbourhood and in the testing conditions of Afghanistan requires flexible funding procedures and managers who take quick decisions, are tolerant of risk, and support broad and comprehensive programs. These are difficult in an aid context increasingly dominated by bureaucracy, metrics, international committees and theory.

But they are not impossible.

We have succeeded in part because of The Prince of Wales, who pursued an opportunity in an environment which would have intimidated most international donors. He was prepared to trust the people on the ground and combine immediate private funding with longer-term government support.

We have been able to draw on the examples and knowledge of The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, The Young Business Leaders Forum, The Prince’s Trust and The Prince’s School for Traditional Arts, and combine their different approaches in a single place with a single community. These diverse groups share a common confidence in historic communities, arts and cities, in culture as a transformative tool and in the practical importance of livelihoods, business and sustainability. This confidence is vital for Kabul.

But the real lesson of the last two years has been a lesson in humility. Insofar as we have survived and prospered, it has been because we have listened to our Afghan colleagues and the community of Murad Khane, and have been guided by their preferences and their solutions. Their know-how, tested by experience, has an agility, a power and a legitimacy which no foreign programme can match.
 

The Prince's Regeneration Trust welcomes new Chairman

Posted 29th August 2008 15:08pm

The Prince's Regeneration Trust, the charity of HRH The Prince of Wales which focuses on heritage-led regeneration, has appointed Ian Marcus as its new Chairman succeeding Andrew Hamilton who chaired the Trust for three years.

Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of The Prince’s Regeneration Trust, said ‘I am delighted with Ian’s appointment as Chairman and believe he will lead The Trust onto a very exciting future. Ian brings a wealth of experience and leadership from the property and financial sectors.

We look forward to working with Ian who we know will be an inspirational Chairman, building on the excellent work that Andrew Hamilton has done in the role over the past three years.’

Ian Marcus is Chairman of the European Real Estate Investment Banking Group at Credit Suisse, based in London and has been working in the banking industry for 28 years always focusing on the property industry. He is the Immediate Past President of the British Property Federation, Past Chairman of the Investment Forum and Chairman of the Bank of England Property Forum.

Ian Marcus said: 'It is a great honour to chair the PRT and build on the outstanding work of Andrew Hamilton. The Charity fulfils a vital role in ensuring many cherished and iconic properties are brought back into functional use. Even in these challenging times for the industry we need to ensure that regeneration remains at the forefront of the decision making process for owners, occupiers and developers'.

BBC One Antiques Roadshow at Dumfries House

Posted 15th December 2008 18:00pm

Earlier this year the BBC One Antiques Roadshow team visited Dumfries House, filming for its 31st series. Fiona Bruce, the Roadshow's new presenter, was joined by some of Britain's leading antiques and fine arts specialists. Over 1500 visitors made their way to the event clutching family heirlooms and household treasures. Watch BBC One this Sunday, 21st December, to see Dumfries House featured on the programme.

Work at The Prince's Regeneration Trust for a Charity Next secondee

Posted 22nd December 2008 15:43pm by Sarah Fisher

It has been a really busy couple of months at The Prince’s Regeneration Trust. We purchased our first building! It’s the Old Duchy Palace in Lostwithiel, Cornwall, a fantastic Grade I listed medieval building. Meanwhile, we are working with a whole array of other buildings and communities up and down the UK, including a new project at Cleveland Pools in Bath, the only surviving Georgian pools in England. 

A particular highlight for me was having the opportunity to spend a day observing an ‘Enquiry by Design’ where The Prince’s Regeneration Trust and The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment are working together with other organisations to masterplan the future use of a former military hospital and surrounding area. It was a fantastically hands-on event, with all sections of the local community getting involved. I came away really inspired by the enthusiasm, collaboration and creativity which will get this exciting, albeit highly challenging, project off the ground.

Meanwhile, my research into improving the environmental performance of listed buildings has taken me across the UK on visits to an ‘energy village’ in Essex, tenement buildings in Edinburgh and – somewhat closer to home – the London Transport Museum, where solar photovoltaic panels have been installed on the roof. While in Edinburgh, I also spent a day learning about work being done to support the supply and demand of traditional building materials and crafts, like Scottish roof-slating, carpentry and joinery and stonemasonry. It was fascinating to see how stonework is forensically examined at the Scottish Lime Centre to find an exact match for repairs and restoration work.

For now, though, I’m really looking forward to a relaxing Christmas break, and returning in the new year with batteries recharged! 

The Prince of Wales's Graduate Fellowship Programme in Sustainable Architecture & Urbanism

Posted 22nd January 2010 09:00am by Hank Dittmar

There is a global skills shortage in urban design and green architecture. In response to this shortage, The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment has established a Graduate Fellowship to meet the need for the next generation of architects and designers who will evolve traditional architecture and urbanism in response to the global climate and urbanisation challenges. We believe that comprehensive and practical action is needed to train designers who can evolve traditional approaches to planning and designing in response to our contemporary ecological crisis.

The two-year paid fellowship involves placements at The Prince’s Foundation in London and with committed practitioners in the United Kingdom.

Applications for the 2010 programme close 29th January 2010. To be added to the mailing list for details of the 2010 applications, please contact education@princes-foundation.org  

For more information on the programme and how to apply, please click here. 

The Prince of Wales’s Building Crafts Apprentices Programme

Posted 22nd January 2010 11:40am by Hank Dittmar

The Prince of Wales’s Building Crafts Apprentices scheme is an eight-month programme of applied study which offers building craftspeople the opportunity to enhance and advance their design knowledge and experience in traditional and sustainable building crafts.

The Prince of Wales’s Building Crafts Apprentices scheme offers talented, enthusiastic and committed craftspeople the opportunity to enhance their vocational skills with the design knowledge, work experience and coaching necessary to succeed in a career in the traditional building sector.

We are looking for building craftspeople who want to bridge the gap between basic qualifications and becoming a master craftsperson. Successful applicants will be rewarded with an eight-month programme of courses and work placements, during which they will be given the opportunity to develop their craftsmanship and use their skills in a broad, holistic building context alongside other building professionals.

Applications for the 2010 programme close 26th February 2010.  To be added to the mailing list for details of the 2010 applications, please contact education@princes-foundation.org   

For more information on the programme and how to apply, please click here 

The Prince of Wales records Burns' poems at Dumfries House

Posted 23rd January 2009 11:25am by Alison Duguid

The Prince of Wales has recorded two of his favourite Burns works, A Red Red Rose and My Heart’s in the Highlands, as part of a Robert Burns audio archive project.

The three-year BBC Scotland project, which will see all 600-plus works of Burns read by a host of well-known figures, launches officially on Sunday 25th January to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Scotland's bard.

The Prince, who is known as The Duke of Rothesay in Scotland, recorded My Heart’s in the Highlands and A Red Red Rose during a visit this week to Dumfries House, the Ayrshire stately home he led a consortium to save for the nation in June 2007 in what was described as “the save of the century”.

The Duke of Rothesay's contribution is one of the first to be made available along with ones from First Minister Alex Salmond, who read A Man’s A Man for A’ That , and a host of stars from the world of entertainment including Alan Cumming (Rantin Rovin Robin, Mauchline Wedding), John Gordon Sinclair (Address to a Haggis, A Lass wi a Tocher), Eileen McCallum (Tam Sampson’s Dead), Robert Carlyle (O Leave Novels) and Robbie Coltrane (John Anderson, My Jo).

The project, which was announced in the autumn by BBC Scotland’s Head of Radio Jeff Zycinski, will allow followers of Burns, particularly schoolchildren and students, to savour the rich legacy of his poetry for many years to come for the first time.

“Burns still resonates hugely more than two centuries after he penned over 600 poems and songs, both here in Scotland and beyond - and this project will ensure that his works are available to everyone for years to come,” said Mr Zycinski.

A special radio programme, The Complete Burns, will showcase the online archive on Sunday, January 25 at 10.30am on Radio Scotland.

Click here to visit the BBC Listen Again page for the Today programme, where you can listen to The Prince’s rendition of My Heart’s in the Highlands broadcast at 08.23am.
 

Globalization from the Bottom Up

Posted 6th February 2009 18:15pm

“Globalization from the Bottom Up”, The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment’s sixth annual conference, was held on 5th February at St James’s Palace. The conference examined the issues of globalization and identified better ways of meeting the aspirations of the burgeoning urban populations of the Global South and establishing settlements that are liveable, resilient and founded upon local culture and building traditions. 

HRH The Prince of Wales, President of The Prince’s Foundation, and Hank Dittmar, Chief Executive, joined speakers from around the world. The speakers all highlighted the importance of distinctive and sensitive development, which respects indigenous culture and tradition and which builds upon and strengthens a sense of place and community. They also demonstrated how this approach creates opportunities, by capitalising upon the strengths and assets of individual communities.

The conference highlighted how and why such an approach works and speakers discussed individual communities which have been successfully revitalised in this way.

Hank Dittmar showed ways in which local identity and adaptation can be respected and serve as foundations for sustainable development. He commented:

“The Prince’s Foundation believes that working with local communities to show the importance and value of place and local particularities, in both new developments and regeneration, can assist revitalisation, whether in rapidly urbanising parts of the Global South or in booming cities. We believe that a sense of place is derived from buildings and public spaces that respect local climate and landscape, embody local history and use local materials, craftsmanship and design. We work with local people to identify these characteristics in order to distil and articulate what I call the “DNA” of a place, so that we can build new places which reflect and replicate that DNA. Our approach seeks to evolve and adapt vernacular design, learning from what has worked well in the past and mixing it with the best the twenty first century can offer.

This conference highlighted communities that followed this approach and show that they tend to be more robust both socially and economically and better equipped to realize a thriving future together.”

One of the results of today’s globalized culture is a growing “architecture of anywhere” which makes everywhere look the same. This is another manifestation of the ways in which vulnerable communities are being cut off from their roots and culture, with the attendant risks of fragmentation and dislocation.

While some might argue that homogeneity is inevitable, The Prince’s Foundation believes that it is possible to meet the needs and aspirations of individual communities in ways that reflect local culture and ways of building.

The Prince’s Foundation also maintains that cultural and social diversity are valuable assets in their own right and are important drivers of opportunity and enterprise. Places with a strong and distinct identity are differentiated, which helps them generate and sustain social and intellectual capital, the bedrock of sustainable development.

With examples from its projects in China, Jamaica, Saudi Arabia and Sierra Leone, and those of its sister charities and like minded organizations, The Prince’s Foundation’s sixth annual conference discussed these issues and presented practical solutions..

A busy Springtime at The Prince's Regeneration Trust

Posted 18th March 2009 13:19pm by Sarah Fisher

Since my last blog in December it feels like we’ve been through the worst of Winter – with the snow disrupting work for a couple of days in February – and come through the other side, with Spring definitely in the air this week.

It has been as busy as ever here, particularly because we moved offices just down the road at the beginning of March and are now settled in. In February, I went with a couple of colleagues on a fascinating trip to Yorkshire to see two listed buildings which have taken innovative yet sensitive approaches to becoming more environmentally sustainable. One of these was Gibson Mill, a National Trust property which has reinstated the old water turbine to generate electricity, as well as installing solar panels, composting toilets and a biomass boiler, amongst other measures. The mill looked particularly picturesque in the snow which was falling throughout our visit, although we were glad to get back into a warm train at the end of the day! It was interesting to compare this case study with the latest developments and technologies on show and being discussed at the EcoBuild conference in Earls Court in the first week in March. When I went along there I was heartened to see the level of interest in the environmental agenda, although the sheer level of change needed over the coming months and years is quite daunting.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been engrossed in finalising the arrangements for a conference which we are hosting in Llandudno on 26th March, along with the Institute for Historic Buildings and The Civic Trust for Wales. It will focus on empowering local authorities to use their statutory powers proactively and effectively to save important historic buildings from neglect and abandonment and collaborating with the third sector to bring them back into use at the heart of thriving communities. This forms a key plank of our education strategy at The Prince’s Regeneration Trust and I’m really pleased that we’ve had such a good level of interest in the event, with over 50 delegates so far. I’m looking forward to hearing from a series of excellent speakers and, I’m sure, some very lively discussions on the day. If anyone is interested to find out more, please visit: http://llandudno2009.ihbc.org.uk/.