Hi Nick, how are you? 

 

Very good, David. How are you?

 

I'm very good, thank you. I wanted to ask you about two particular projects of yours that are pretty high profile. One is the National Portrait Gallery that you did in collaboration with Jamie Fobert, and then the masterplan for the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. Could we start with the National Portrait Gallery - a pretty amazing scheme. What were the key moves, would you say?

 

The key moves were all about trying to basically make the visitor experience much better than it was before. The visitor was always at the heart of the brief, as was getting them close to the artwork. And it was a project that, as you said, we collaborated with Jamie Fobert Architects right from the onset, to win the competition and work with him and his team, right through.  I think the moves that basically got us to win the competition were really about trying to make the public experience and the public realm around the building much better than it was before we started the project.

 

And the new entrance was a key part of that, presumably, was it?

 

Exactly. I think all the competition entries had a new entrance, but it was Jamie's master stroke, really, to put it on that north east side of the building, whereas others put it on that facade further down the road. So, by doing what he planned, you could make a really generous and big forecourt onto the pavement, which is all land owned by Westminster, actually. But I think it was his idea with the director to actually get art right onto the street, so, as you might know, there are three new doors that Tracy Emin did as part of the project. And that's what was telling - a sort of brief, really, of trying to get art onto the street. Even when the museum's closed, people can still realise it's an art gallery and see amazing artwork, whereas before you'd have to do quite a convoluted route before you saw anything. I think it was that sort of narrative, of obviously respecting the building and its heritage, but also bringing art everywhere, that was possible right from the outset of the journey to the gallery. It was probably the gallery I went to most out of all the London museums. And that's because I think portraiture speaks to people in a way that you don't have to be super intellectual, super into art. You turn up and recognise faces, whether those are celebrities, but also, sculptures of famous people, throughout history. And as a kid, the BP Portrait Award was always one of the exhibitions I went to every year, even though I wasn't. In London...

 

Were you personally familiar with the building beforehand, or was it all fairly new to you on getting the project? ...You were in Bristol, weren't you?

 

 

I was in Bristol, yes, at Purcell, but in their Bristol office. But I think just seeing an opportunity to see artists who weren't necessarily professional on display was always something that intrigued me. I did know the building quite well, and it was the dream project when we were announced as winner, because I could work on a building that I know didn't quite work as well as it could.

 

What is your favourite element of the project?

 

Nick Chantarasak   

Purcell were obviously very heavily involved with the conservation, but we also led a lot of the internal spaces. We coordinated the shop fit out with another architect, Alex Cochrane, the cafe and restaurant fit out with interior designers, but also worked with Nissan Richards to do all the gallery spaces. There are some galleries on the first floor where we basically re-opened all of the original windows that, over the 130 year period of the building being open, had been gradually closed off internally, either through shutters or completely lined over with partitions, mainly to just deal with UV control in a grade one listed National Art Gallery where environmental conditioning is very stringent. It was probably taking what is now called The Blavatnik Wing and opening the windows on that floor, which I think for me, is my proudest move, really. It did take a lot of effort to do that, going through a lot of environmental testing. We have three different types of window treatment on those windows, which includes automated blinds, screens, window films. So even though it looks quite straightforward, a lot of work went into that.

 

And two years on from its opening in June 2023, you've got some ongoing work, I think, with them in terms of decarbonizing. Can you speak about that?

 

Sure. We worked with Max Fordham, who were the service engineers for what was called the Inspiring People project, the original phase. And the gallery approached us after that, asking whether we could help them get the Salix funding, which is a government funding for decarbonization for the whole estate, so not just the art gallery building, but also the staff buildings that surround that building. We worked with Max Fordham to do an appraisal, a kind of fabric-first appraisal. That was looking at all the buildings and where we could make fabric improvements, in terms of installation, window replacements, adding PV panels, air source heat pumps etc. Max Fordham did a really extensive piece on how their existing services could all be revamped or replaced to help with their target of becoming carbon neutral. That got Salix funding a few months ago. We're hopefully going to get appointed and carry that process on, which is a bit less glamorous than the main project, but super important, and something that we're finding a lot of national institutions want to do, and they're committed to doing. So there's an exciting piece there.

 

The other high-profile project I mentioned at the start was the Royal Observatory project in Greenwich. Can you talk to me about that, briefly?

 

Yeah, so that is a project that actually is in collaboration with Jamie Fobert and his team as well. 

 

Again? Okay.

 

Again. We're working with Price and Myers and Max Fordham, so the same structural engineers and service engineers, and Gardiner and Theobald who were acting as project managers. Personally, for me, it's a really great project because I'm with all the same design team as I was before.

 

Getting the band back together! (laughs)

 

(laughs) Yes! So yeah, it is nice in that we all know how each other’s work, and it's almost like a continuation of the work we did at the Portrait Gallery. But the Observatory site is a kind of collection of different buildings throughout time, all obviously related to the endeavour of exploring our place in the universe, right back to the 16th century. It's an amazing collection of buildings, but they've never really had a project that's tied that visitor experience all throughout the site. So, working with Jamie, we're adding in a new entrance pavilion, making all the buildings much more accessible and creating new visitor spaces, such as an event space, an improved shop, a new cafe building, and again, like the Portrait Gallery, refitting out most of the existing spaces and turning them into exhibition spaces. So it's similar in a way, where we're trying to maximise the potential of the existing spaces they already have, but also adding a few sensitive additions to improve that visitor experience.

 

They're extraordinarily rich historic buildings down there, aren't they?

 

They are. They're all listed in their own right within a registered park and garden. They're all classed as a scheduled monument, and it's a world UNESCO heritage site. So our job at Purcell hasn't been easy, to try and push change into some of these spaces, but we've been obviously working closely with Historic England and the design team and the client to really understand why these buildings are important and actually use that as a brief, really, for the new interventions and for what's going to actually go on within each of these spaces. It's been quite a rich experience. And I would say working with astronomers is quite mind-blowing. Not that working with art curators isn't, but the kind of themes they want to talk about and show are quite complex... 

 

You could have said working with them has been ‘out of this world’ or something... ! Or I'll do that. (laughs)

 

(laughs) I'll remember that the next time…

 

(laughs) Okay. Last question: I noticed something from your profile online that you did some volunteering a fair time ago, about 13 years ago in the Philippines, where you built a house for an underprivileged family. Can you tell me about that?

 

Sure, when I started architecture, I was always much more into the human side rather than the building side, which is a bit of an irony, I guess, now that I'm a conservation architect focused on restoring and adapting buildings. But as hopefully demonstrated by these projects, I think the people and the users of these buildings is what excites me about taking on a brief, and this was an opportunity to go to the Visayans, which is the central band of the Philippines, and basically do some building straight after doing my part one, which isn't always that easy when you finish university, and it was a recession at the time. I had a job with Purcell, and they actually sponsored me to go out and do this project. It was quite a hard experience, much harder than I thought it was going to be, because we were out every day, including on the weekends, building in the really humid and hot weather. But it was really great because we met the family and we worked with local builders, and we learned all the local techniques such as weaving palm to make walls and using plumb lines, and spirit levels, which are just tubes of water with a bubble in it. So going back to quite rudimentary ways of building, but again, quite interesting. And something that I think has always excited me about architecture is the building side of it. So it really made me think, yeah, this is something I want to do. And, you know, carry on with my studies and career. 

 

Well, fascinating – so that inspired you to the work you do today, in a sense?

 

Exactly, yes. I know a lot of people who did their Part One architectural degree and thought, you know, maybe architecture isn't for me, but I think, as I said, for me, it's the building and the delivering of projects that I really enjoy. And I've been lucky enough to work on some really amazing buildings since then. Yes, I think it springboarded me into my career quite nicely.

 

Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for talking those through. I shall think of you next time I'm in the Portrait Gallery looking at a famous person's visage! So, thanks again!

 

Great. All right. Thanks, David