Rapheal John-Lall

Ar­chi­tect Rudy­lynn De Four Roberts be­lieves we don't ap­pre­ci­ate clas­sic ar­chi­tec­ture enough, even though T&T has many old build­ings re­flect­ing our rich, di­verse past.

De Four Roberts, who is pas­sion­ate about T&T's his­to­ry and its colour­ful ar­chi­tec­ture, be­lieves that au­thor­i­ties should be­gin in­cul­cat­ing the na­tions's his­to­ry in­to stu­dents at a very young age.

"We can be­gin teach­ing peo­ple about their neigh­bour­hoods and ap­pre­ci­a­tion for their her­itage from pri­ma­ry school. We need to un­der­stand that these old build­ings are ours. Not every old build­ing we would save–but we need to save the best," she told the T&T Guardian last Fri­day.

De Four Roberts is an ar­chi­tect who spe­cialis­es in old build­ings, and a mem­ber of the Na­tion­al Her­itage Trust.

The Na­tion­al Her­itage Trust is the body which de­clares build­ings and prop­er­ty as na­tion­al her­itage. It does re­search and as­sess­es build­ings to de­ter­mine how valu­able they might be to the coun­try's her­itage, and it lists wor­thy build­ings for pro­tec­tion.

She spoke of a re­cent pro­gramme in her­itage preser­va­tion ar­chi­tec­ture which she par­tic­i­pat­ed in. Host­ed by the Min­istry of Arts and Cul­ture, the free two-month pro­gramme stud­ied a va­ri­ety of old build­ings. Stu­dents from di­verse walks of life ap­plied to the pro­gramme, in­clud­ing peo­ple from teach­ing, the fine arts, and en­gi­neer­ing.

"Every week we met and did tours of places in Port-of-Spain (like) Bel­mont, Lapey­rouse Ceme­tery. The stu­dents did a lot of re­search and did posters and dossiers on the var­i­ous sites. I am hap­py that now that the pro­gramme is fin­ished, the stu­dents want part two! They can now look at an old build­ing and say: this is Goth­ic, this is Ro­manesque, this is of Span­ish ori­gin."

A re­cent cer­e­mo­ny to mark the pro­gramme's end was held at the Na­tion­al Trust Build­ing, Sackville Street, Port-of-Spain.

Speak­ing about the val­ue of old build­ings, De Four Roberts said it was the an­ces­tors of this gen­er­a­tion who craft­ed, de­signed and built these clas­sic build­ings.

"Un­less you un­der­stand that, and how these build­ings are put to­geth­er, you will not re­al­ly de­vel­op that pas­sion. These build­ings are ours. The stones are from Laven­tille and were quar­ried by the peo­ple who live there.

"The ma­sons were lo­cals, all the ar­ti­sans in­volved in do­ing the build­ings–from Stollmey­er's Cas­tle to the lit­tle house in Bel­mont–were lo­cal. We need to take pride in what our fore­fa­thers did."

She al­so em­pha­sised that both the Gov­ern­ment and pri­vate sec­tor must play their roles in con­tribut­ing funds to en­sure that clas­sic build­ings are re­stored and saved for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

"One of the things we cov­ered in the pro­gramme was 'adap­tive re-use', which is re­cy­cling build­ings. This is tak­ing an old build­ing, restor­ing it and putting it to mod­ern use, so that the build­ings lives again and earns it keep for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions. Peo­ple do not need to knock down the old build­ings."