Dan Cruickshank - why great architecture matters to us all

Described as the “Venice of the Sands”, the golden ruins of Palmyra have long been regarded as one of the wonders of the Middle East.

For centuries this ancient Syrian city was a prosperous trade centre linking the East and West and tourists later flocked there to marvel at the Temple of Bel and the well-preserved remnants of other once grand edifices.

So when, in 2015, it emerged that the so-called Islamic State had destroyed a number of its precious monuments there was widespread anger and dismay. This was exacerbated further in January when IS was accused of blowing up part of a Roman amphitheatre in Palmyra.

The World Heritage site is among the many places that architect historian Dan Cruickshank has been to on his global travels and mentions in his book - A History of Architecture in 100 Buildings - which he will be discussing when he appears at the York Literature Festival next week.

Cruickshank laments the destruction of this and other historic sites. “I’ve been to some places that now seem unbelievably tragic and outlandish, like Palmyra and Mosul. I travelled round Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan before they befell these terrible disasters,” he says.

It makes both his book and his talk topical, just not in a way he would have wished. “These places are hugely important. Iran is known as ‘the cradle of civilisation’ and Afghanistan, too, with its historic trade routes. But do we shrug our shoulders and do nothing? Or do we say, ‘evil will not have the last word and we will respond?’

“At the end of the Second World War many people did that. The Poles rebuilt Warsaw and by doing so they were saying ‘we can’t let the Nazis have the last word on our capital city’. Similarly today, do we let Islamic State have the last word on the history of so many culturally important places?

“These attacks on buildings are not just an attack on history and beauty, they’re also an attack on people’s sense of pride and identity, and the fact people are angry is confirmation of just how important architecture is.”

Over the past decade and a half Cruickshank has helped bring buildings and their stories to life. His TV programmes are informative without being dull, and accessible without feeling the need to dumb down the subject matter.

“The all important thing about architecture is it forms the fabric and context of our lives,” he says. It’s something he feels we should all be interested in. “In many ways it’s too important to be left to architects and planners and politicians. It’s our world, we live in these buildings and we have a say in how to make them better.”

He sees his book as a way of encouraging a debate about architecture and looking at which buildings we want to keep or restore, and what we want our towns and cities to look like in the future.

Cruickshank says architecture has followed a similar pattern throughout human history. “From Roman times right up to the 19th Century most architectural design harks back to the past. Georgian buildings are an interpretation of those from the Italian Renaissance which in turn are an interpretation of Roman styles, which in turn copy Greek buildings which themselves can be traced back to Egypt.

“So there’s always been this continuity as one generation looks back and takes elements and transforms them. But all that changed in the 20th Century with Modernism when the idea of ornament and history almost became a crime,” he says.

The prevalent principle was that ‘form follows function’, as the American architect Louis Sullivan famously described it. Or, in other words, that the shape of a building should match its function.

Since then the architectural rule book has been thrown out of the window. But when we talk about what makes a great building Cruickshank doesn’t believe size matters. “We often hear about the biggest or oldest, like the first skyscraper. But that can be quite crude and what interests me most are buildings that have good stories.”

He’s travelled all over Britain and says Yorkshire is home to some of Britain’s most impressive architecture. “Yorkshire is full of the most sensationally important buildings, like Wentworth Woodhouse. It’s a wonderful country house that has a tremendous story and it’s one of the great powerhouses from the 18th century.”

The history of architecture is entwined innovation and technology. “Even in Roman times technology was hugely important because they constructed buildings two thousand years ago which were unprecedented in scale, like the Pantheon in Rome. But some of the best preserved domes were actually made out of concrete,” he says.

The development of brick, which must have seen like some kind of alchemy at the time, had a profound impact on how we live. “You can walk through York and see superb examples of brickwork that are better than anywhere else in the world. There’s some masterly brickwork in this country from the late 17th and early 18th centuries.”

In the past, buildings were constructed to last a long time, something postwar architecture turned on its head. “It’s interesting how design has evolved and been applied to architecture. It’s led to the notion of it being a disposable object, so when a building fails we chuck it away like a broken car, or fridge.”

But that doesn’t mean that modern buildings are less important. “Green architecture, ecology and sustainability have become very important issues and we know that buildings can in a sense destroy the planet because they can be very polluting.

“Now we want buildings that reconcile all these concerns and at the same time create beauty, because green architecture can give you great insulation but also look bloody ugly.”

So is great architecture all about functionality or beauty? Or both? “In the end it’s the poetry of it all. The Shard in London gets a lot of attention because it’s so big, but the great challenge in this country is designing new buildings that fit in with the old ones.”

Part of the problem can be the architects themselves who are sometimes overly keen to leave their own mark on the landscape. “Most architects, with all goodwill, want to assert themselves or make some demonstration of their knowledge. Whereas in the past they would build a little building and it would almost disappear, which is what makes historic towns so charming,” he says.

“In York where you’ve got so many outstanding and beautiful old buildings you just want them to be left alone. So we don’t need more egos, instead we just need a bit more patching and mending.”

Dan Cruickshank is appearing at the York Literature Festival on March 20. Tickets cost £10. For more details call 01904 623 568.

The human desire to rebuild

Dan Cruickshank says the built environment is growing ever more important. “Seventy-five per cent of the world’s population live in cities which is a complete reversal of all other centuries. The amount of buildings, particularly urban buildings, that are going to be created in the future means we need people to be engaged with architecture - which has happened,” he says.

“Warsaw was a city 95 per cent destroyed by the beginning of 1945 and it was recreated rather successfully. The Tsarist palaces in St Petersburg and the Frauenkirche in Dresden were rebuilt, so there’s an obvious human desire to right great wrongs and rebuild great buildings that have been destroyed.”