[...]... Councils in the Diocese of Norwich who employed me under the 1955 Inspection of Churches Measure, the application of which in England laid the foundations of an approach to the scientific conservation of historic buildings My other corporate clients included the University of York, Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Magdalen College, Oxford, the owners of historic houses and the Department of the Environment Clearly... composer of music The conservation architect is like the conductor of an orchestra; he has a score that he cannot alter He has to produce a work of art, using the instrumentalists, and his power of interpretation, based on his understanding of the messages in the music When a conservation project is not an artistic success, it must be deemed to be a failure The conservation of our historic buildings. .. the hazards of 100 years of usefulness, it has a good claim to being called historic From the first act of its creation, through its long life to the present day, an historic building has artistic and human ‘messages’ which will be revealed by a study of its history A complexity of ideas and of cultures may be said to encircle an historic building and be reflected in it Any historical study of such a... interventions The basis of historic building conservation is established by legislation through listing and scheduling buildings and ruins, through regular inspections and documentation, and through town planning and conservative action This book deals only with inspections and those conservative actions which slow down the inevitable decay of historic buildings The scope of conservation of the built environment,... condensed into a statement of the significance of the cultural property The cost of conservation may have to be allocated partially to each of the above separate values in order to justify the total to the community Whereas for movable objects the problem of values is generally more straightforward, in architectural conservation problems often arise because the utilization of the historic building, which... practice of architectural conservation and the conservation of artistic and archaeological objects in museums, for the architectural conservation of a building also involves its site, setting and physical environment Preparatory procedures for conservation Figure 1.5 A street after conservation, Stralsund, Germany Preparatory procedures for conservation Inventories At the national level, conservation. .. architectural conservation Reconstruction Reconstruction of historic buildings and historic centres using new materials may he necessitated by disasters such as fire, earthquake or war Reconstruction cannot have the patina of age As in restoration, reconstruction must be based upon accurate documentation and evidence, never upon conjecture The moving of entire buildings to new sites is another form of reconstruction... role of conservation crafts The scope of building craft skills in conservation ranges from the simple repair and maintenance of domestic properties to the most complicated work that can be imagined, for which the highest skills are necessary The men to carry out the latter class of work should be classified as conservation craftsmen and have a status equal to that of other professionals engaged in conservation. .. vehicles How this book deals with the subject Part I: Structural aspects of historic buildings (Chapters 2–6) Gravity is both the force that keeps buildings standing and the major cause of their destruction Structural actions and analysis of the failure of elements form the basis of this part of the book Typical defects in various forms of structures are reviewed and examined in order to enable the architect... learned from the local buildings A chapter on the man-made causes of decay, which are complicated and widespread, discusses the problems of vibration from heavy traffic and industry, of water abstraction and of atmospheric pollution (Chapter 11) Chapter 12, dealing with the internal environment of historic buildings, is the corollary to that on climate, as the primary purpose of buildings is to modify . maintenance of historic buildings 235 17 Fire 251 18 Presentation of historic buildings 261 19 Cost control of conservation projects 273 20 Rehabilitation of historic. the inevitable decay of historic buildings. The scope of conservation of the built environ- ment, which consists mainly of historic buildings, ranges from