LECTURER: Hello.
Welcome to a very short video on Architectural Conservation.
My name is Ingrid van Bremen,
I'm the originator and coordinator and principal lecturer in this subject,
so I'm probably best placed to give you an introduction to the course.
I'm sorry we can't meet face to face
and I hope that this short video will do that work for you
as an introduction and I hope to meet you
face to face sometime in the future.
We will begin as we usually do at the university
with an acknowledgement of country.
So, the University of Western Australia
acknowledges that its campus is situated on Noongar land
and that Noongar people remain the spiritual and cultural custodians
of their land and continue to practice their values,
languages, beliefs and knowledge.
I'm going to talk to you about course information,
reasons to study the subject, practical experience
and careers after graduation.
So, the course is actually called a Graduate Certificate
in Architectural Conservation and it offers to give you insight
and skills in the full range of concepts methods,
and practices involved in that specialised field.
As a course it was developed for design
and planning graduates to further their skills
and specialise in architectural conservation.
The course duration is one or two years, part time.
It's available as a maximum of 75% online
with 25% of fieldwork onsite for each unit.
Three of the units are co-taught as options
in the Master of Architecture degree,
which also can be studied by a Masters of Urban Design
and Master of Landscape for Architecture students.
So, the graduate certificate is arranged
around four core units of six points each.
The first one is introduction to architectural conservation.
This involves the full range of concepts, methods and practices
that are involved in the specialised field of architectural conservation.
It's the general introduction to the whole subject
and covers a little bit over the other subjects as well.
Then we go on to practical building conservation.
This is about professional level practical skills
in investigating significant places to assess their condition
and devise appropriate repair and maintenance schedules for them.
Those two units are covered in semester one
so you can study them together in the first semester of any year
or you can do them one at a time in subsequent years.
The third one is conservation in cultural landscapes, historic towns
and urban precincts and this covers the key concepts
in area conservation and the processes of identification, assessment
and management of significance from the world to the local level.
This is where conservation meets landscape, town planning
and urban design.
And the final one is conservation planning in practice.
It's about the preparation of conservation plans
to suit individual places extending to evaluating adaptive reuse options
and necessary repair.
And the three and four are units that are covered in Semester two,
again, you can study them together in the same semester
or you can do them one at a time in subsequent years,
but be aware that the final unit, number four,
has a prerequisite of number one.
So, if you're actually starting mid-term
you can only start with conservation in cultural landscapes, number three,
until you catch up with the introduction in a subsequent year.
So, the top reasons to study architectural conservation.
Well, one would be for professional level training
in key conservation skills from qualified
and experienced practitioners.
So, this is not just book learning, this is not just theory,
this is actual practice in the field from people
who've been working in that field in practice for many years.
Another one would be to experience and practice on real historic places
and to engage with their managers and stakeholders.
And another would be to develop sound research
and surveying techniques for use in the conservation field.
To understand the roles of heritage organisations
and disciplines involved in caring for significant places.
This is an important part of the subject
and we cover that from the world to the local level.
Practical experience.
Well, you will gain practical training
in research and surveying significant historic places
and completing professional reports to protect them in the future.
On completion of your degree you can apply for your own internship
or join a program with one of our associated organisations.
During the course you will be introduced to opportunities for further study
and experience overseas with international heritage organisations.
These include ICOMOS,
which is the International Council on Monuments and Sites,
IUCN, which is the International Union for Conservation of Nature,
APTI, which is the Association for Preservation Technology International.
There are national trusts in many countries of the world
which offer study opportunities and there is the SPAB in the UK.
This is the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings,
which for a long period of time have offered short courses,
long courses and specialised training in conservation processes.
So, for careers after graduation,
well, the first thing you do is you can add Grad Cert Arch Cons
to your degrees and this will fit you for practice
as a conservation consultant in private architectural practice
or as a role as a heritage officer in state or local government
or you can go on and do further research and teaching in conservation studies
in a number of universities around the world.
So, that's a very brief overview
of the Graduate Certificate in Architectural Conservation.
Obviously if you want more information that can be got
from the University handbooks and course guides.
If you want to ask me direct questions you can get my contact details
from the School of Design in the university.
So, thank you for listening.