The AA’s Building Conservation course awards a Graduate Diploma on completion of its two-year part-time programme of studies: students attend each Friday during academic terms. The course aims to develop awareness and skills in the core subjects of Historic Knowledge and Cultural Appreciation; Research and Report Writing; Philosophies of Conservation; Traditional Building Materials; Structures of Historic Buildings; Fabric Deterioration and Repair; Building Investigations and Assessments; Regeneration and Conservation; Design in Modern Urban Contexts, and International Projects.

Students are exposed to a range of experiences to assist them in developing their conceptual approach and technical skills. In addition to developing a wide range of knowledge concerning historic buildings of all periods, the programme continues to emphasise twentieth-century buildings and environs, along with the current political and social issues of change, regeneration and urban redevelopment.

Lectures are reinforced by visits to current projects or to buildings or sites which are exemplars for current issues, such as the Caruso St John alterations to the Museum of Childhood or Kings Cross/St Pancras, which couple conservation with regeneration. Of particular interest were the visits to Strawberry Hill House (where the building is being opened up and revealing its mysteries) and Westminster Cathedral. Visits to workshops and studios have included lead casting, a stone quarry and a stonemason’s yard. The annual school tour was to Suffolk, taking in the Bulmers Brick and Tile Works, Lavenham, and Bury St Edmunds.

Following a study tour in 2006 to Brussels and Antwerp, and the ‘Belgian Day at the AA’ in 2008, Andrew Shepherd attended the inauguration of a UNESCO Chair in Preventative Conservation and Maintenance at the Raymond Lemaire International Conservation Training Centre at the University of Leuven in Belgium. Adequate maintenance prevents the need for future invasive conservation works! We were also pleased to host the inaugural seminar of an EU-funded project on ‘Criteria for Assessment of Heritage at Risk’ as a part of the ‘Heritage without Borders’ programme with participants from seven countries in Southeast Europe.

At the invitation of the Littoral Arts Trust, the course has become engaged with the proposed conservation of Kurt Schwitters’ Mertz Barn at Elterwater in the Lake District, offering both advice and assistance to an exhibition at the Royal College of Art. It is hoped that a working party at the Barn can be arranged in the near future.