PRESERVING Victorian-era architecture is a tall order for most homeowners, especially with ornate wood carvings perishing over time.That is where Professor Franco Frescura comes in.
Frescura, who leads the teaching programme at Phansi Museum in Umbilo, is opening his archive of Victorian carving designs to the public.
The designs were traced by students years ago when Frescura was a professor in architecture at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (then Natal University).
“We instituted programmes with the students where we sent them out with tracing paper to copy the outline of the building designs. They would take the etchings back to the studio and draw them up with the use of a drawing board and drawing utensils. These are 1:1 drawings – they are to scale,” said Frescura.
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Similar architectural designs can be found across South Africa.
“You’ll find them in Port Beaufort, just as well as you’d find them in Beaufort West. You don’t get these in Johannesburg anymore. These designs are carved in timber, which perishes in the sunlight and the weather,” he said.
Frescura said the drawings formed part of a job-generation exercise. Power tools were sponsored and three carpenters were hired to run a workshop.
“Anyone who was restoring or doing maintenance on their house, who didn’t have access to the designs, would tear down the timber and replace it with asbestos. We would send the carpenter with the designs to restore the timber instead,” he said.
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While the workshop has since closed, the drawings survived.
“We would now like to make these drawings available to anyone who is engaged in restoring their buildings. We would be delighted to assist the general public. If we don’t have the pattern that you want to replace, we are quite happy to come out and trace the pattern. Alternatively, you could decide on the pattern you like from our archive,” he said.
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