Conservation Network

Background

In its present form the Conservation Network of EAAE came into being in 2007. Prior to this event, two meetings on conservation had been organized by the “Lemaire Centre our la Conservation”, the Katholieke Universiteit at Leuven. The Network is an open one, structured around intensive workshops held every two years, hosted by a member school of EAAE. Six workshops have been held: Genoa 2007, Dublin 2009, Bucharest 2011, Rome 2013, Hasselt 2015 and A Coruna 2017. Proceedings are peer-reviewed, published by EAAE and are accessible on the EAAE website under “Transactions”.

The workshops create opportunities for academics and practitioners in conservation, who are engaged in architectural education, to discuss the theoretical and practical issues encountered in conservation of the architectural inheritance of buildings, towns and created landscapes. Discussions take place in the context of real sites and participants are asked to relate the issues and experiences to the teaching of architecture. Each workshop has focused on distinct areas of concern, and the format adopted has responded to the experiences of the events and the feedback received from participants. Each workshop has posed different challenges to participants and to the organizers and coordinators. As always, the primary challenge is to remain open as to how best to achieve the goals of the network and EAAE.

In addition to the workshops, intermediate meetings are held to reflect on workshop experiences and to consider proposals for the next workshop event

Recent and continuing activities

The proceedings of Workshop 6, held in A Coruna in 2017, are currently in preparation. Papers have been edited, revised and re-submitted. Final editing is underway with the expectation of publication in March/ April 2019.

An intermediate meeting was held in Genoa in June 2018. The meeting reviewed the accounts of the 2017 workshop, discussed the experience and heard a presentation from Ceske Vysoke Uceni Technicke v Praze (TU Prague) for a workshop to be held in October 2019. The proposal, with the suggested title “Conservation/ Destruction” is under development, with the call for participation made through the EAAE website and through direct contact. It is hoped to issue the call in March/ April 2019.

Co- coordinators:

Professor Francesco Stefano Musso, University of Genoa
Professor Emeritus Loughlin Kealy, University College Dublin