Best of Intentions: The Historical Development of Education in Architectural Conservation

Abstract

This thesis traces the origins, development and international spread of postgraduate architectural conservation education. Highlighting fundamental questions about the architect’s role in heritage conservation it also carefully considers the relationship between new design and the protection and care of historic buildings. It analyses the evolution of specific courses and the role of leading individual figures in light of intensifying discussion about principles and education at postwar conservation conferences. Based on historical archival material and interviews with participants, the thesis documents the educational backgrounds and roles of a series of key promoters of conservation education and underlines their subsequent influence on the field. The analysis of individual influence and the links between these actors constitutes a prosopography, or collective biography, for architectural conservation education. This collective biography crosses national borders and explains the common elements of postgraduate courses around the world. The network of relationships between key educators was particularly strong between those from Anglophone nations, facilitated by a common language and shared histories. By attending to conservation education the thesis documents the breadth and intensity of efforts to define the boundary between architectural education in the general sense and conservation specialisation. In doing so, it highlights the unstable boundary between architectural design and architectural conservation. Finally, taking this difficulty into consideration, the thesis examines the opportunities and the difficulties involved in establishing an accredited heritage conservation/historic environment profession.