The students of the programme recently completed work on their dissertations. This module is entirely flexible, giving the students the opportunity to choose their topics according to their special interests within the fields of heritage and conservation. In this 10th year of the programme we had a great team of students with a wide range of interests and backgrounds. This is reflected in the varied dissertation topics ranging from theoretical essays and the drafting of conservation plans to the detailed design of intervention proposals.
Here is a selection of this year’s topics:
Judit Heli – Conservation Plan and Design Proposal for the Summer House of the Charlton House Estate
The dissertation focuses on the ‘Summer House’ of the Charlton House Estate ( Greenwich, UK). As part of the Jacobean compound, the Summer House was possibly built slightly later than the main building, Charlton House, in the 1630s. Attributed to Inigo Jones and constructed as a belvedere overlooking the cityscape of Greenwich and the River Thames, this beautiful building has changed use over the years, and has been called a ‘summer house’, ‘garden house’, ‘banqueting house’, ‘pavilion’, ‘orangery’, ‘drinking house’, and ‘armory’. The building was converted and used as a public toilet from the 1920s until the 1990s, while during wartime, it served as an air raid shelter. Following these periods of use, it was neglected and subjected to serious vandalism. Today, the Summer House is maintained by The Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust. The Trust executed much-needed preservation works in 2018. Despite these efforts the building remains disused to this day.
The dissertation aims to propose an intervention to infuse new life into this small ‘jewelry box’, which serves as a gateway to both Charlton Village and Charlton Park. Positioned strategically, the building could act as the ‘front door’ to the estate and the park, while also serving as a connecting element between village life and park activities, potentially making a significant impact on both. Furthermore, aligned with the Trust’s vision, the proposal aims to offer a wide variety of community and cultural uses, while ensuring appropriate historical interpretation. Additionally, the proposal intends to include ideas to generate income to guarantee the long-term future of the building.
Fizza Abbasi – Conservation and Tourism: Balancing Preservation and Economic Development in UK
‘This dissertation investigates the UK policies that reconcile heritage conservation with tourist development. It explores the role of government agencies, heritage organizations, and local communities in shaping these policies and implementing conservation initiatives. It also analysed the negative effects of overtourism, such as the damage too historic structures, and socio-economic pressure of designing newer structures as in the case of the Redevelopment Plan of the Folkstone Harbour and Canterbury.’
Iwona Debowska – Window Conservation and Restoration at Clandon Park, Surrey
Prior to being destroyed by fire in 2015, Clandon Park was one of the country’s finest eighteenth-century mansions. Owned by the National Trust (NT), the property is now subject to a major intervention, and Iwona is part of an architectural conservation team with a particular role in surveying and documenting the joinery and glazing elements of the windows. It is the documenting and conservation of these based on their historical context that forms the subject of this dissertation. The windows are predominately of a sash variety and have undergone complex development over their almost 300-year history. As a result of the fire, they are in varying states of repair: some have been completely destroyed, whereas others remain in good condition. This calls for a range of repair and restoration approaches, which constitute the focus of this dissertation
Ruchi Makwana – Conserving Heritage through Adaptive Reuse: Transforming Boxley Abbey
Using the Hospitium of Boxley Abbey (Maidstone, Kent) as a case study, this dissertation aims to develop a new framework for the preservation and adaptive reuse of medieval buildings.
Gareth Dennis – Conservation of Public Houses
The pub is a fundamental part of the heritage of the British social fabric, and one that is very clearly at risk. The current legal, ethical and legislative framework is clearly inadequate to protect these vulnerable heritage assets. Regional campaigns have saved individual pubs but clearly haven’t protected the architectural heritage of pubs and especially and especially its intangible aspect. I propose to explore this complex issue via case studies focussing on the regional context of rural South Wales. The key questions are: how has the nature of the pub altered the evolution of the historic buildings it is housed in? How can the presence of the pub impact the protection of the built heritage asset? How secure is the current business? And: what is required from the legal and administrative framework to protect these unique pieces of cultural heritage (often the only non-residential building in a village other than a church)?
Tracey Clarke – Preservation Matters – Artefacts versus Buildings: The challenge of creating museum spaces in historic buildings (and the resulting impact on preservation)
This dissertation examines the extent to which historic buildings, not originally intended for use as museums, need to be altered to accommodate this use. I will consider if the significance of the heritage asset is harmed through such interventions and question whether the preservation of artefacts is placed above the preservation of the historic building. I intend to examine the key requirements of museums, including environmental controls, lighting, security and loading and how historic buildings need to be altered to accommodate these reuirements.