When building structures for the present and future, sometimes we can overlook the unique architecture of the past. According to U.K.-based architectural heritage group Twentieth Century Society, that’s exactly what’s happened at the Kensington site of the Design Museum, which the society claims did away with "a magnificent postwar masterpiece."
Originally completed in 1962 by the design duo of Robert Matthew and Stirrat Johnson Marshall, the Commonwealth Institute was known for its hyperbolic paraboloid roof, interior central podium, and sculptural balconies. This was enough for the Institute to earn a historic grade II* designation, which means that Historic England found it to be “a particularly important building of more than special interest” worth placing in the top ten of all recognized British landmarks.
This didn’t prevent the building from falling into a state of disrepair over the years, though. By the time OMA and John Pawson gutted its interior to make way for the Design Museum’s new home, the Commonwealth Institute had sat abandoned for eight years. As a result, Twentieth Century Society had no choice but to add the building to its Lost Modern List, a running tally of what director Catherine Croft calls “some of Britain’s most dynamic and expressive buildings” whose defining architectural characteristics have been demolished or irreparably altered.
According to Croft, blame lies not with the Design Museum or its architects, but with “the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Historic England who both failed to ensure it got the protection it deserved,” she says. “To all intents and purposes, this Grade II* building has been lost."
There isn’t much to be done at this point other than use the Commonwealth Institute saga as a teachable moment. As with other buildings on the Lost Modern List, the hope is to raise awareness of misunderstood midcentury structures so that more concerted efforts can be made for their preservation. As more and more buildings that don’t conform to the conventional aesthetics of “historic” architecture become relics of the past, this mission will only grow more important with time.
