An Introduction to Architectural Conservation

Chapter 1The Role of the Architect in Maintaining and Adapting Historic Buildings

Architects and surveyors play a vital role in both repairing and maintaining historic structures, as well as in making careful changes and conversions for modern occupation. Renewed usefulness through occupation is not the only value these buildings hold, they also provide a physical record of our history and often hold an emotional meaning in a community derived from its collective experience of a place. They give important insights into our past that can be physically experienced and understood, more so than through records on drawings, film or in words. They remind us of how earlier generations lived, and provide our historic towns and villages with the architectural ...