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Posted on June 10, 2022June 10, 2022

COTAC Seeks ‘Virtual School’ Project Officer

‘Virtual School’ Project Officer

 

Temporary (June – November 2022, 24 weeks total)

 

Part time (12.5 hrs per week on average)

 

£12 per hour (£3600 total)

 

Work Location: remote (with occasional meetings in person)

 

The Council on Training in Architectural Conservation (COTAC) is seeking a Project Officer to help deliver the Heritage Lottery funded COTAC Virtual School, an entry-level heritage and historic environment conservation education unit delivered entirely digitally.

 

In this role you will be an integral part of the team by supporting the delivery of the project including performing market research and analysis, helping to design and implement content in the Learning Management System (LMS), and analysing data and feedback.  This is an excellent opportunity for a student or emerging professional to learn about the heritage sector while helping develop an engaging, rewarding virtual learning environment.

 

Working hours are flexible and you will be expected to engage in a range of activities as the development of the ‘Virtual School’ requires.  This will be a fast-paced project and so an eager approach and good communication skills are crucial.

 

You will be expected to have your own computer hardware and software equipment able to access and run standard programmes (email, web access, etc).  Any technological requirements required above and beyond shall be reimbursed at cost and as agreed by COTAC.

 

This is a contracted service provision role, with fee payments by month, based on a submitted invoice.  Interviews to take place online (via Zoom or similar).

 

Email info@cotac.global for more details and to apply.

Posted on March 29, 2022March 29, 2022

Ingval Maxwell stepping down as COTAC Trustee and Chair of Management Group

Ingval Maxwell, after 10 years at the helm as COTAC trustee and chair of Management Group, has decided it is time to step down from these roles. During his tenure he has overseen the change of COTAC from a “Conference” to a “Council”, and re-registration with the Charity Commission as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). COTAC started in 1959 as an informal Conference of organisations in the conservation world, interested in improving the sector’s education and training. It first registered as a charity in 1993 and changed its name to a Council in 2015 on becoming a CIO.

During his time as chair Ingval has worked tirelessly to ensure the organisation’s ongoing viability, resurrected the annual COTAC international conference, developed a 5 year Corporate Plan 2019-24, carried out this plan’s mid-term review and established a number of working sub-groups reacting to activity in the sector including BIM for Heritage and Digital. His main focus over the last few years has been to steer COTAC in the development of a comprehensive range of online learning material and packages from basic through intermediate to advanced level, for which he and Barry Bridgwood have been the main authors.

The Covid pandemic has caused many organisations, including COTAC to review the way in which they operate, so for the last few years, led by Ingval, all our meetings and conferences have been held online. This is likely to remain for most activities in future in order to continue to benefit from the savings in travel expenses and time. The pandemic has also driven most education to be delivered online. Having experienced the benefits, both education establishments and students are likely to continue with this method in future, and/or adopt a blended learning approach. This augers well for the forthcoming use of all the COTAC material, available on the COTAC Global website, which Ingval has been so instrumental in developing. 

Ingval Maxwell trained as an architect from 1962-1969 at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at Dundee University, which is world renowned for its high quality. On qualifying he joined the Ministry of Public Building and Works, Ancient Monuments Branch, which morphed into Historic Scotland and worked his way through the organisation to become Technical Director in 1993 until his retirement in 2008 after 39 years. He is reputed to have wittily entitled his retirement speech “A Career in Ruins”. During his time at Historic Scotland he oversaw the production of over 140 Technical Advisory Notes and Inform leaflets that are used widely by professionals and practitioners in the sector.

He also established over 20 years ago, the Edinburgh Group, which is now facilitated by COTAC. Its aim is to encourage all professional institutions such as AABC, RIBA, RICS, CIAT, CIOB, to establish conservation accreditation schemes. Typically he has personally registered and achieved the highest level accreditation in both the AABC and RIBA architect registration schemes. This Group has been a huge success with over 10,000 conservation professionals now working towards or accredited. Initially reluctant through concern at the small numbers available, accreditation requirement for lead professionals has now been adopted by all the main Home Countries’ bodies for their grant schemes. Accreditation is also increasingly being required by an ever expanding number of clients for their conservation projects. This has helped greatly improve the quality of work on our built heritage. The Group continues to meet twice a year working towards greater consistency and refinement across all schemes.

Ingval originally joined COTAC in the early 1990s as a member of the Conference because he found it useful for his work in Scotland to keep abreast of other sector developments across the wider UK and Republic of Ireland. After serving the required Civil Service period of non-sector involvement following his retirement, he joined COTAC again, initially as a volunteer and was soon appointed a trustee. Ingval is a polymath with a very wide range of interests and was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2003. During his career he has served as Advisor to the Scottish Conservation Bureau, the Ancient Monuments Board for Scotland and Historic Buildings Council for Scotland, Trustee of the Charles Wallace India Trust, acted as a UNESCO/ICOMOS World Heritage sites assessor, a member of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Stone, a judge for the Stone Federation Natural Stone Awards and he sits on the RIBA Conservation Register Steering Group and its Conservation Group. In addition to his COTAC work he has authored/published a large list of publications over the last 20 years.  

Realising that by the end of the current COTAC Corporate Plan he will be entering his ninth decade, Ingval felt it time to reduce his commitments. However he has generously agreed to continue the completion of various in-progress educational materials for the COTAC website as well as progressing the Concrete Study. He will also consider further work on the Earth and Open Air Museum studies and progress the Accreditation Equivalence Survey initiative and chair the 6 monthly Edinburgh Group in its realisation.

All the COTAC team wish to thank Ingval for his enormous contribution to the organisation, unstinting commitment and amazing energy in progressing matters to bring COTAC to where it is today, firmly in the 21st Century. We wish him well and hope that we can persuade him to continue to work with us albeit in a reduced capacity for many more years to come.

Tim Yates

Chair of Trustees

Posted on March 29, 2022March 29, 2022

WHUK webinar: Liverpool – After World Heritage

June 23 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm UTC+0

£30.00 – £45.00

More info here.

In 2021 UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, acting on a report from its World Heritage Centre in Paris, decided to remove Liverpool from its list of World Heritage Sites. This was only the third time in history that a Site had been removed from the list. It is an incredibly sad loss, not just for Liverpool, but for the UK as whole as part of our national heritage, and was the subject of much immediate national and international press attention.

This online conference will be of immense value to cities and places around the world, whether they already have a World Heritage Site or are considering an application. It will bring out and explore the very real tensions between conservation and regeneration; the responsibilities and consequences of inscription; and the importance of effective communication between UNESCO, municipalities, state parties and other bodies.

This online conference, in association with the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place, University of Liverpool, will seek to:

  • explain how and why the decision was taken
  • explore the inescapable tensions between conservation and development in managing an urban landscape, especially in cities acutely needing regeneration
  • consider what lessons might be learned for other cities and places, including those which already have a World Heritage inscription as well as those actively seeking one
  • appreciate Liverpool’s immensely important role in world history and its continuing architectural and townscape inheritance
  • look forward positively to assess how Liverpool’s astonishing inheritance might best be managed, understood and enhanced in the future
Posted on March 22, 2022March 22, 2022

ASCHB Conference 2022

The climate emergency is with us now. It threatens our very existence; and to meet the challenge we shall have to change how we build and operate our buildings. The historic environment is often labelled the villain in the race towards a more sustainable future, but as conservation professionals know, it is arguably our most valuable resource.

Book here

ASCHB-Flyer-2022-FINALLY-FINAL

The 2022 ASCHB conference will aim to draw lessons from heritage, viewing the historic built environment not as a problem, but as a critical part of the solution. It will look at familiar problems with new eyes:

  • The pursuit of ‘net-zero’: what does this really mean, and why is it important? How can our built environment be modified to meet carbon targets, and how do we assess where we are and where we are going?
  • Adaptation to overheating, flooding, storms and other weather extremes: can this increase the lifespan and useability of buildings, but simultaneously cut carbon?
  • What can the design and use of pre-Industrial buildings and landscapes teach us? Our built environment changed dramatically when we began to burn fossil fuels on an industrial scale. How do we disentangle the many real advances of the industrial age from the myriad changes that have reduced building lifespans, are energy-hungry and belch carbon?
  • How have changes in policy, regulation and assessment affected the way we design, construct and use our buildings?

 

In posing these questions we seek to lay down some foundations for a practical new vision for the future: an interdisciplinary vision that combines the best of both modern and historic technology and practices, avoids maladaptation, and embeds learning and education, so that lessons are learnt and wisdom is passed on.

This is a vision which places the users of the built environment once again at the centre of decisions.

Our speakers will be:

Carl Elefante
Morwenna Slade
Dr Ranald Lawrence
Freya Wise
Adala Leeson
Dr Alice Moncaster
Jane Anderson
Sarah Khan
Charlotte Robinson
Joanne Williams
Jess Hrivnak
Bill Bordass

Come to ASCHB2022, join the debate, and be part of the solution!

 

Posted on February 18, 2022February 18, 2022

International Final Conference of the Interreg Central Europe STRENCH Project

The international final conference of the Interreg Central Europe STRENCH Project, scheduled for online mode on February 24th in the afternoon from 2.30pm to 5.30pm CEST

STRENgthening resilience of Cultural Heritage at risk in a changing environment through proactive transnational cooperation

We´d kindly ask you to distribute the attached invitation and registration-link below to everyone you deem interested in the event.
 

Please register in advance: https://donau-uni.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Bz2i5e4fRTadjSc1oxefUA

STRENCH International Conference Programme 2022

Posted on November 1, 2021November 1, 2021

Online Dampness Assessment from Core Conservation

Nothing beats a hands-on professional dampness survey. However by answering a few questions we can quickly diagnose many problems and determine the most likely cause of your problems. Why wait? Give it a go, it will point you in the right direction.

Start Assessment

Posted on October 25, 2021October 25, 2021

Applications Open for the Advanced Masters in Structural Analysis of Monuments and Historical Constructions

After 10 years of European funding, 430 students from 70 countries, applications for the Advanced Masters in Structural Analysis of Monuments and Historical Constructions are opened up to January 20, 2022. This is the leading international course on conservation of heritage structures, winner of the 2017 European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage “Europa Nostra”, and a unique opportunity to meet people from all over the world.

This Master Course, which is running its 15th edition, is organized by a Consortium of leading European Universities/Research Institutions in the field, composed by University of Minho (coordinating institution, Portugal), the Technical University of Catalonia (Spain), the Czech Technical University in Prague (Czech Republic), the University of Padua (Italy) and the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic).

The course combines the most recent advances in research and development with practical applications.

A significant number of scholarships, ranging from 4,000 to 13,000 Euro, are available to students of any nationality.

Please find full details on the MSc programme, as well as electronic application procedure, in the SAHC website at www.msc-sahc.org

Visit also the SAHC blog http://blog.msc-sahc.org and www.linkedin.com/school/sahcmasterscourse/

Posted on October 11, 2021October 11, 2021

Arts and Humanities & IPERION HS services – 12 Oct 2021

An overview of what IPERION HS can offer to the Arts & Humanities Community

The webinar takes place online and will introduce participants to the field of Heritage Science facilities in IPERION HS, a European project devoted to building a distributed research infrastructure in the field of Heritage Science: E-RIHS (http://www.e-rihs.eu/).
The focus will be placed on what IPERION HS can offer to the Arts & Humanities community and how IPERION HS can answer to the heritage needs.

Date
12th October 2021 at 3 pm (CET)

You will learn

  • What IPERION HS can offer to the Arts and Humanities community
  • Which are the latest resources and technologies for Arts and Humanities

Key topics we’ll cover
Heritage Science
Arts & Humanities

Duration
45 minutes (30 minutes + 15 minutes Q&A)

Posted on September 10, 2021September 10, 2021

Heritage 2022 – International Conference on Vernacular Heritage: Culture, People and Sustainability

Conference Website

15, 16, 17 September 2022 in Valencia, Spain

Topic 1. Vernacular architecture: matter, culture and sustainability

T1.1. Study and cataloging of vernacular architecture

T1.2. Urban studies of vernacular architecture

T1.3. Studies of traditional techniques and materials

T1.4. Sustainability of vernacular architecture

Topic 2. Heritage education

T2.1. Research in heritage education

T2.2. Heritage education and social inclusion

T2.3. Heritage communities

T2.4. Creativity and heritage education

Topic 3. Artisans and crafts of traditional construction

T3.1. Intangible heritage: the management of know-how and local construction culture

T3.2. Training in traditional construction crafts

T3.3. Tradition and innovation in traditional construction crafts

T3.4. Plans and experiences for the recovery and maintenance of construction crafts

Topic 4. Conservation, restoration and enhancement of vernacular architecture

T4.1. Conservation and restoration projects of vernacular architecture

T4.2. Materials and intervention techniques for vernacular architecture

T4.3. Difficulties and possibilities of using traditional crafts in conservation

T4.4. Management and maintenance of vernacular architecture

Posted on September 9, 2021

PhD Grant available on “Thermo-physical and short-term mechanical properties of lime-based mortars”

A position for a PhD student will open soon, within the scope of a European Training Network (ETN): Sustainable Building Lime applications via Circular Economy and Biomimetic Approaches (SUBLime).

The topic of the PhD: Thermo-physical and short-term mechanical properties of lime-based mortars: upscaling from micro to macro scale. You can see a description of the topic here.
 
We are looking for dedicated and highly motivated Early Stage Researchers (ESR), who will join our team to craft the future of lime mortars/plasters in new construction and conservation of the built heritage.

Please note that there are Eligibility Criteria. You can check them here.

If you are interested in applying, please send your CV to Dr. João Pereira (jpereira@civil.uminho.pt) until September 30th, 2021.

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About This Site

Formed in 1959, the Council’s 21st century Objectives are to advance the education and training of all those involved in the protection and preservation of the historic environment that is of cultural, architectural or historical value, and to provide knowledge in support of training and education in the arts and skills required to protect and preserve it.

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