The National Trust has launched a new International Design Competition in Clandon Park. Clandon Park is the Trust’s Grade I listed Palladian house located in Guildford in the south west of England. The house experienced a major fire in April 2015 and has since been the subject of a high profile project which intends on restoring and reimagining the National trust site. In construction works set to cost £30 million, architects have been asked to submit plans for the Palladian house which demonstrate a detailed understanding of the projects as well as submit a proposed team and any relevant experience in order to be considered for the contract. The deadline for this first stage of development is 21st April 2017. The National Trust will then consider the applicants, and the “finalists” that will enter phases two will have to create concept designs that will involve both sensitive restoration of the main state rooms, ad flexible new spaces on the upper floors of Clandon Park.
The intention behind the competition is to get the worlds very best combination of designers in order to renovate Clandon Park and transform the experience for the visitors of the currently fire damaged Palladian house. Thankfully, six hundred artefacts were saved for the fire in 2015, as well as the brick structure, architectural features and famous Marble Hall. Caused by a manufacturing fault in an electrical board, the majority of the 18th– Century house was damaged in the fire, although there was a small portion left unscathed. Some artefacts were taken from the debris after the fire and await conservation before they can be put back.
Clandon Park is culturally significant as depicting the era in English history where the Baroque style was being replaced by Palladianism. The house was designed by Giacomo Leoni, the Venetian architect, and consists of red brick exterior contrasting with bright white marble in the interior Marble Hall and other intricate and extravagant interiors.
The competition is run by Malcolm Reading Consultants, and there is no fixed date as to when the restoration will be completed.
