Course content

Building conservation will be an important approach in the building industry for the future. There will be more renovation, restoration and transformation of existing buildings, and less new constructions. Thus, knowledge of the values in existing buildings will be of great importance. The core of the course is basic knowledge in understanding cultural heritage to learn how to read the values in a building and take care of them in the best way possible. Important topics are conservation theory, the history of building conservation, vernacular architecture, the history of architecture, laws of cultural heritage, skills in reading a building, building conservation in practice, including present challenges in building conservation. Also methods for documenting buildings by searching archives and collections will be touched upon.

Learning outcome

The candidate who passes the course, is expected to have the following learning outcome according to the course curriculum, defined as knowledge and skills:

Knowledge

The candidate

• has basic knowledge in conservation theory applied on building conservation
• has basic knowledge in the history of building conservation
• has basic knowledge in vernacular architecture and the history of architecture
• has an overview of legislation of relevance for building conservation

Skills

The candidate

• has training in reading historical traces in a building
• can reflect upon building conservation in practice on the basis of concreate examples
• has training in collecting information about a building from archives and collections
• is able to produce a case-based project work completed with cultural heritage discussions

Learning methods and activities

Lectures, demonstrations/instructions, excursions/site visits, course meetings, online meetings with discussions and supervision, group work.

Three mandatory submissions, two related to the physical meetings and the third to the excursion. These must be approved before the final project work. Active participation is required to accomplish the course.

Compulsory assignments

• Mandatory paper
• Mandatory paper
• Mandatory paper

Recommended previous knowledge

Education and work experience in the building industries: architecture, engineer, high school teacher in building and construction, practical handicrafts, property management

Required previous knowledge

General university admission certification

Course materials

Reading list and material handed out at course meetings and excursion.