This is a zine, very loosely modelled on pamphlets authored by Sir John Soane. It collects the research and collaborations that Simon Faride, who added an ‘e’ to his surname just as Soane did, undertook while a Jerwood Artist in Residence at the Soane Museum in 2025.
The topic of Faride’s pamphlet is ‘ruin value’ (Ruinenwert). This is a concept which was coined after Soane’s time, but it is clearly visible in some of his ideas. In basic terms, is it the desire to design a building to function successfully both in its original form and later as a successful ruin. This ambition can be seen most clearly in Joseph Michael Gandy’s ‘Architectural ruins, a vision’ (1798). Faride playfully expands on this idea in the pamphlet, looking to apply this notion of design for post-function to other areas, in particular as a way of imagining potential museum futures.