The Case for Reconstruction: Glasgow School of Art & other stories

This event is part of SHBT's Challenging Conservation 24/25 lecture series.

Speakers:

Liz Davidson – National Trust for Scotland

Caroline Stanford – The Landmark Trust

The loss of a significant building is often taken to be an opportunity to rebuild with a contemporary structure. But when should we, and how should we, attempt accurately to reconstruct buildings which have been destroyed?

Liz Davidson OBE was senior project manager on the Glasgow School of Art Regeneration project from 2014 through to 2022, and is now Project Director at the National Trust for Scotland with responsibility for the repair and conservation of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Hill House. She will reflect on the philosophy of the decision to restore after the first fire in 2014 and the much greater losses of the second fire which necessitate a full - at least structural - reconstruction.

Caroline Stanford is in-house Historian at The Landmark Trust, whose scholarly restoration projects have included Auchinleck House and Fairburn Tower (which included the creation of a well-researched, but hypothetical, painted ceiling). Using case studies from Landmark’s work, Caroline will discuss how Landmark arrives at a philosophy of repair for each building it takes on, and consider the pre-conditions that sometimes make facsimile reconstruction acceptable.

Host or Publisher Scottish Historic Buildings Trust