Architecture Update: Camden campaign

LAST-MINUTE efforts are being made to prevent the demolition of a Seventies Camden Council-owned home for the disabled designed by the architects of Truro Law Courts and the new Tate at St Ives, Evans and Shalev, after a certificate of immunity from listing was issued by the Department of the Environment last month. Camden Council wants to sell the site for new social housing on the grounds that, although only 17 years old, the Evans and Shalev design 'no longer conforms to requirements in the health field'. Although the building cannot now be listed, English Heritage is urging Camden Council to declare this part of the borough a conservation area. If the council agrees, it would be obliged to look at ways of reusing the building.