Saloon Looking East, Clandon Park © National Trust Images John Millar
The National Trust announced today that in March it will launch its global search for a world-class multi-disciplinary design team to restore and renew Clandon Park, its 18th-century Palladian house, which suffered a major fire in April 2015. The Clandon Park International Design Competition will run for six months, concluding in early September.
Just over a year after the Trust announced ambitious plans to bring the Grade I listed house back to life, in what will be the charity’s biggest conservation project in a generation, Clandon Park’s Project Director, Paul Cook, said:
‘This international design competition is the first to be held by the Trust for such a significant historic building; signalling our desire to attract the best design talent to work with us.
‘Clandon Park represents a ground breaking moment in British architecture, moving from Baroque to Palladianism. It is this significance that we hope will inspire both British and international architects to enter the competition and bring Clandon back to life through the careful restoration of significant historic rooms with the re-imagining of other spaces, on the upper floors.’
The open two-stage competition will be run by independent competition experts, Malcolm Reading Consultants (MRC). MRC specialises in competitions for museums and arts, heritage, and non-profit organisations and recently organised high-profile contests for the Illuminated River, the Museum of London and Tintagel Castle Bridge.
Malcolm Reading, Architect and Chairman, Malcolm Reading Consultants, said:
‘We’re delighted to manage this competition for the National Trust. Even shrouded in scaffolding, Clandon’s Palladian proportions are compelling in their purity. This is an exceptional proposition for architects, engineers and landscape designers: to recreate Clandon so that it lives up to both its past and its future.’
Final preparations for the competition are in progress, with full details to be announced at the launch on 9 March. To sign up to receive information about the competition, go to the competition website.
