2007 International Trades Education Symposium Abstracts

IPTW-ITES 2007 Tällberg, Sweden:
"Leadership for the Trades - An International Priority Issue"
International Trades Education Symposium and International Preservation Trades Workshop, May 21-25, 2007

The Preservation Trades Network (PTN) together with educational representatives and the Swedish building industry jointly held an International Preservation Trades Workshop and International Trades Education Symposium (IPTW-ITES) with the theme, Leadership for the Trades: An International Priority Issue, in Tällberg, Dalarna region, Sweden, May 21-25, 2007. Proceedings from the event are to be published in the academic series Göteborg Studies in Conservation, Acta Gothoburgensis Universitatis, Göteborg University, Sweden.

IPTW-ITES 2007 Tallberg, Sweden Slideshow

Sponsors
Preservation Trades Network (PTN)
DRCC - Dalarna Region Cooperation Council
GMV Centre for Environment and Sustainability Chalmers University of Technology and Göteborg University
BI - Swedish Construction Federation
Stiftelsen Byggutveckling Star

CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS

Lisa Sasser - PTN and the International Trades Education Initiative
PTN was founded in 1995 by a small group of practicing tradespeople and colleagues in allied disciplines who refused to accept the characterization of the trades as "the headless hand". There were many at the time who doubted that such an organization was needed, or that the trades had a distinct and meaningful role in the discussion and practice of heritage conservation. We believe that the full and active engagement of the trades in this process represents more than creating a balance of the work of the mind and the hand, but also represents a major change in how we value and conserve cultural heritage.

The International Trades Education Initiative was conceived as a means of building an international network of cooperative programs, linking building trades education providers and resources. The 1st International Trades Education Symposium in 2005 at Belmont Technical College in St. Clairsville, Ohio was designed as a venue to begin the process of creating this international network. Symposium speakers and participants came from eight different countries, many different backgrounds, traditions and modes of learning. However, all were united by a common belief in the critical importance of the work of the hand and by respect for the trades knowledge and heritage which has shaped the best of our built environment. The conviction that the vitality of the trades is essential to the future of our communities continues, as well as the resolve to generate not just ideas, but action.

Carl-Olof Ternryd - Leadership and the Trades
A modern leadership means an increased cooperation between all the fellows involved. A good leader must clearly, explicitly and in a simple, understandable way, be able to show what he or she stands for and what clear goals he or she has for the leadership. It is most important to convey clear messages, easy to understand, to demand results and to dare to criticize, positively or negatively, when needed. It is also very important that the leader as well as the fellow understands what is said and documented in order for them to feel safe and to stimulate the creativity. An important task for the leader is to "pave the way" and to open doors for the fellows and stimulate them, but not carry out their tasks.

There are many tools that a leader can use for improving the leadership. One is to develop the information, another one is to take a good care of the delegation and it is also important to be a good listener. Support the subordinated and the fellows in fair winds as well as in adverse winds. Everyone must have the right to make mistakes. Tackle the problems early, while they are small. I have learned from my long experience as a leader on different levels as well in the public work as in the industry that the following key words can create a good leadership:

Simplicity in the team work.
Openness in all relations.
Create a positive atmosphere.
Do not give up. Try again!
We shall be excellent and the best in our profession.

Modern leadership deals with management by objectives and responsibility for the result, quality and quantity, and this is achieved by:Creating challenges, making concrete demands, following up of the result, giving positive and negative information and appreciation or critics to the fellows.

Seamus Hanna - A Time and A Place for Traditional Building Skills within Modern Construction
Our built heritage is an integral part of the places we live and work in, gives us a sense of place and contributes to our well-being, education and economy. These buildings provide rich variety and define our national and international architectural character and are a vibrant part of our built environment. We cannot afford to lose this essential physical resource and irreplaceable inheritance, but preservation needs a supply of craftspeople and building professionals well-versed in traditional building skills and materials. However, these skills have suffered a serious decline.

International partnership is needed to share best practice in learning from one another on influencing mainstream modern construction thinking and developing a new vision, with more flexible training that integrates the education of craftspeople and building professionals to respond to the needs of the sector.

Gerard C. J. Lynch - Leadership through Craft Education and Training
A craft is learned and refined through years of dedicated study and relevant full-time practice, observing and being surrounded by those more proficient—learning through participation. This teaches the correct selection and use of tools, equipment, and materials and develops the ability to know what they are, and are not, capable of in the production of first-class work.

This and exposure to various broad site experiences, enhances the ability to analyse and assess all situations with critical thinking. It facilitates questioning assessment of presented facts, enabling one to draw on this base in order to fully evaluate the presented data to make well-reasoned and informed judgments. The importance of this has tremendous implications not only on the quality of facts deduced, but also on the decisions subsequently made. Furthermore it has a bearing on the craftsman's self-esteem and, most importantly, his status as a leader in the eyes of the professionals who come to respect the well-considered opinions of a craftsman imbued with a sense of dedicated professionalism.

Historical research clearly confirms the regard past designers always placed on the opinions of their senior craftsmen as leaders, for they knew the value to the success of their projects of these attributes; particular their critical eye. For this enabled them to quickly discern the positives and potential negatives within the practical realization of the prospective designs and specifications. Modern craft skills training is skewed towards the 'Fixing' skills necessary for modern construction at the expense of the balanced that taught traditional 'crafting' skills and the modern needs side by side. Regaining the former balance requires putting value back into craft education and training, to attract and retain dedicated students who have the potential to achieve fully-respected qualifications by all professionals across the whole industry; and to develop leadership potential.

We must invest quality time, energy, and money into well-designed craft education and training, studying and respecting both past and modern aspects, and encourage self-belief in our future craftspeople - for we are no less able today than historic craftsmen of producing the masterpieces we marvel at today. How can we ask professionals and clients whose employment we seek to value our crafts and craftspeople if we fail to place value and pride in them first? Only by demanding quality apprenticeships and learning environments that develop an ethos clearly seen to be producing superb craftspeople and respected future leaders, employed in an industry that promotes quality of work and service, can we ask others to also place value on our once-noble crafts.

Wolfdietrich Elbert - Learning and Working across Borders – Do we need it, do we want it?
Learning and working across borders, a common place, you find it in political speech, official declarations, founding documents of international organisations, charters and very practical guidelines, and yet, national frontiers become more and more watertight and foolproof, walls are built here and across the Atlantic, mistrust and security police methods become ever more refined. Ideal and reality do not match. Did they ever in Europe and the world?

An international congress bringing together American and European thought, expertise and experience should be the ideal place to remember the force of ideas and – in the eyes of rulers of past and present times – subversive action. Democracy was perhaps born on European ground, its first written expression stems from a colony across the waters. Ideas and ideals do not know borders, accept custom control, allow themselves to be locked away; they are free as a German folksong says.

Architectural history is the best proof of a permanent international intoxication, of a terrible mix of influences, styles, fashions, trials and errors. Can we then safely say, that there is no national style, no clear identity to be distilled from old buildings? Yes, we can and should, but let us look at heritage legislation in our countries: a bundle of nationalist debris of the 19th century, creeping even into the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, dictating choices, imposing results. Objects defying in the clearest possible manner any attribution to tribes, peoples, nations, are being used and abused for rather transparent purposes of local, regional, national identification.

Here is a great chance for heritage study and conservation: In the spirit of free thought overcome boundaries in heads and hands, discover the common roots of building design, production and use, giving heritage a future as a challenge to understanding. The common roof is a perfect image of what we need to achieve.

Michael A. Tomlan - Preservation Trades Education in the US: Changing Concepts, Renewing Leadership
Preservation Trades Education in the United States can best be characterized as in a continuous state of flux. To judge by the news about the overall decline in collective bargaining and union membership, the future seems to be very cloudy. How can unions provide satisfactory trades education when the very nature of the unions is being transformed? Meanwhile, traditional trade education in high schools, mechanics institutes, trade schools, and community colleges continues to be treated as less important than the high-tech alternatives, and there is only anecdotal information from alumni to substantiate job satisfaction. More students are attending the community colleges in general, however, so that the opportunity to attract them into the trades such as carpentry, masonry, and metalwork is ever-present, particularly in the Sun Belt states. Even more "preservation" trades education takes place on the job, largely by necessity. One needs only be reminded of the tremendous amount of rehabilitation taking place in the country, all of the neo-traditional construction in the suburbs, and the profound needs in cities troubled by natural disasters, whether Charleston or New Orleans, to see that thousands of the workers are charged with thinking "historically" and repairing and replacing the damaged "in kind," although those words are often loosely defined.

Exploring all of these trends and questions in the largest economy in North America has given rise to efforts to revitalize leadership in each arena, and invites comparison with European nations that are facing similar challenges.

Rudy R. Christian - A Place for Trades; Cultural Change in the 21st Century
Few, if any, among us are unaware of the cultural divisions that exist in our own society when looking back at the lives of our parents and grandparents. The story of the bricklayer or the taxi driver who worked six days a week and took on part time work so that his son or daughter could go to college and “do better” than he did is a part of our past that is indelibly etched on our group memory, but have you ever taken the time to really think about what it means? Everyone of us has heard, or more than likely at one time joked, about the "butt crack" drywaller or carpenter on some “union job” or other but how many of us have ever really considered where the carpenter or plasterer might belong in the rich historic pallet of the built environment that we have inherited from our forefathers? During this presentation we will look not only at how the “hand of the master” can be found when we unlock the time capsule of historic architecture, but also how it influenced the forms buildings and even cities took on when the skills of the builder were what powered the wheels of progress.

As developing countries in the world today become part of our global economy changes in their culture become unavoidable. Often this change it is for the good and has resulted in significant gains in personal wealth and leisure time, but how much has that change resulted in the loss of skills that have for generations been handed down from master to apprentice, father to son and mother to daughter and how often do we even consider the consequences? During this session we will take some time to investigate just how this process has affected our society and built environment and look at the indicators of the same process occurring throughout the world. In the last two decades the awareness of the importance of conserving the knowledge and practice of the traditional trades has produced communities like the Timber Framers Guild and the Preservation Trades Network and the example set by these organizations has not gone unnoticed. We will take a minute to look at the international outreach of these organizations and investigate the importance of the potential influence this outreach has. Whether or not the existence of these entities represents the beginning of a period of change in the fabric of our culture is a matter of opinion, but it is an idea which might open doors to an exiting and wonderful new world in which there is once again an elevated place for trades.

Ingval Maxwell - It’s Time to Change: An Integrated Scottish Approach to the Needs of Repair and Maintenance in the Built Heritage
There are many challenges currently facing the construction industry. With a habitual emphasis on new-build of education and training a legitimate criticism can be levied that the industry has repeatedly ignored the repair and maintenance sector. Evidence is emerging that this type of work can amount to half the total industry expenditure in any one year, and there is an increasingly recognised need to rebalance the situation to ensure that the industry is fully prepared for the work it actually does.

Currently, it could be argued that due to a lack of knowledge, skills and materials, much compromise is being reached in trying to undertake appropriate remedial work. Quite simply, that knowledge, degree of required skills, and access to an appropriate range of traditional building materials is missing. Much needs to be done to achieve that balance and this requires involvement from all sectors of the industry, and the building material suppliers.

In an attempt to restore this balance a number of related Scottish initiatives have been occurring in recent years. These have had the aim of influencing the policy direction; providing much-needed support for practising professionals; redressing the lack of awareness of traditional building technologies and materials; and tackling a significant skills deficit. Whilst much still needs to be done, sufficient progress has been made on all of these fronts to illustrate how an integrated approach to these problems can produce positive results.

Vincent Michael - The Role of Hands-On Preservation training in an Academic Curriculum
Since the foundation of the National Council for Preservation Education (NCPE) in 1980, preservation education in the United States has been considered largely an academic discipline based on classroom, laboratory and field work studies with the goal of providing professionals to manage the preservation of the built environment. The majority of NCPE members structure their graduate and undergraduate coursework around an academic model, resulting in a written Master’s or Bachelor’s thesis. While the bulk of these curricula follow academic models derived from art history, history and architecture, there have always been opportunities for students to learn preservation trade techniques, often through summer field schools. This paper will discuss the practical and pedagogical reasons for incorporating hands-on training into academic curricula, with examples of projects from several programs across the United States.

Christer Gustafsson - Training Programmes as a Catalyst for Sustainable Development
This aim of this paper is to describe new approaches to set about boundary-spanning challenges for regional sustainable development and uses as a starting point experiences from the sector of cultural heritage. In the Halland region a number of restoration projects have been carried out 1993 - 2007 by a new cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary network. This was introduced which will be described and discussed with a “multi-problem-oriented” approach.

The objective with this article is to describe and discuss the creation of such, specifically tailored networks that have been working “pro-actively” with cultural heritage and sustainable development. Its innovative driving force was to employ construction workers who were trained in traditional building techniques in the restoration projects. New tool-kits have been developed for the protection, maintenance and conservation of the built cultural heritage. Instead of only safeguarding the historic buildings from demolition or unnecessary alteration the approach has been to take the role and the initiative in designing projects in which the cultural heritage sector had the central role on a regional level. To achieve this goal the new networks have been established which have been working cross-sectorally and multi-disciplinarily. The benefit of this collaboration was that the cultural heritage sector was able to act as a driving force in achieving the objectives agreed upon. In such networks the public sector is anticipated to co-operate with SME’s, NGO’s as well as with research teams, where the cultural heritage is anticipated to have a pro-active role, and to co-operate actively in an ambience of Regional Development programmes etc. The impact of the regeneration schemes on a regional level are as follows:

Regional development
Strengthening of democracy
Cultural identity
Development of the concept "Integrated and Sustainable Conservation"

Robert W. Ogle - Historic Preservation Craft Education Leads the Way: The Colorado Story
A new comprehensive model in historic preservation education took root in the state of Colorado, USA during 2006. The mission of this innovative approach is to integrate preservation education with the demands of industry, professional practice and government policy.

The catalyst to implement this concept was the founding of the historic preservation program at Colorado Mountain College (CMC), which emphasizes preservation craft/trade skill and preservation entrepreneurial skill development. Curriculum design is based upon the educational model developed during the inaugural ITES gathering held in St. Clairsville, Ohio, USA in 2005. Students are exposed to a balance of classroom, vocational and experiential learning regardless of subject matter. Successful students are eligible to earn an Associate of Applied Science degree or Certificate(s) of Occupational Proficiency. Graduates are empowered to enter practice immediately and/or continue their education at a higher level.

CMC has aligned with the other major public higher educational institutions in Colorado that offer preservation curricula i.e. Colorado State University (CSU) and the University of Colorado-Denver (UCD) to form the "Preservation Practice Partnership". This group is committed to matching student learning with industry and professional practice demand on a sustainable basis. The effort is supported and advised by professionals from the preservation community, government agencies, private industry, and the Colorado state higher education authority. Considering the deficit of qualified preservation graduates, the partners are in the process of developing an innovative inter-institutional articulation mechanism that focuses on student learning needs regardless of level of matriculation. Students enrolled in secondary, technical, post secondary, or graduate programs are eligible to participate in courses together and receive credit from their respective ceding institutions. To enhance efficiency, each participating institution offers a complementary curriculum: CMC (preservation trade and business skills), CSU (preservation construction management and finance), and UCD (preservation design, planning, public history).

This paper and presentation presents in detail the evolution of this innovative model along with case study examples of our collaborative process. Colorado is committed to developing a public K-12, 2 year, 4 year, graduate, and post-graduate historic preservation education track. The effort is a testimony to the importance of preservation trade skills education as a catalyst for preservation education reform. It is hoped that our experience will positively inform other preservation educators domestically and internationally.

Martina Caruana - Defining Standards for Conservation: Aspects of Roles, Education and Certification
The paper will give a broad overview of the European Conservation Practitioner’s License (ECPL) Leonardo project, outlining its original objectives and work packages. It will treat the development of the project since inception in 2005 and will delve more deeply into the objectives of the project as it stands today as a European initiative involving the collaboration of the major institutional European stakeholders in conservation education and the conservation profession.

The paper will illustrate how the project takes into account new trends in European education and how these can be applied to the conservation profession and related professions/occupations including skilled workers in built heritage, making reference to documents and projects developed in recent years on aspects of conservation education and the conservation profession. Moreover, it will further handle the projected vision for the future.

Specific attention will be given to the three main work packages and their respective deliverables, namely a digital report on the state on education in conservation within the 25 EU member states, a handbook of defined minimum common standards for EQF levels 7 and 8 in conservation (the professional conservator-restorer) in 12 areas of conservation including architecture, model learning outcomes for 3 specific areas to provide benchmarks to be used in conjunction with the minimum common standards, the drafting of a legal document for the creation of a body that can award the European Conservator-Restorer’s License (ECRL), the publication thereof of all the results in downloadable format, and the preparation of a sequel project.

Morris Hylton III - An Integrated Approach to Trades and Preservation Education: Mount Lebanon Shaker Village Traditional Building and Historic Preservation Field School
Over the last generation in the United States, there has been a steady decrease in the number of young people choosing a career in traditional trades – essential skills needed to conserve and sustain the nation’s built heritage. This decrease is directly related to the erosion of time-honored systems of training, such as apprenticeships. The causes are myriad and complex, ranging from the wide-scale adoption of modern building materials and construction technologies following the Second World War to changes in the American public educational system to a lack of respect afforded to those who work with their hands.

One negative result in the United States has been an imbalance between the academic- and craft-sides of cultural heritage conservation education and practice. As part of its Traditional Building Arts Initiative – a multifaceted program to address the needs impacting traditional trades education – World Monuments Fund partnered with Preservation Trades Network, University of Florida College of Design, Construction and Planning and American College of the Building Arts to create a model approach to integrating trades and preservation education. In 2006, the pilot effort was launched at Mount Lebanon Shaker Village in New Lebanon, New York – a U.S. National Historic Landmark site that was included on the 2004 and 2006 World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites. The field school offers interdisciplinary, experiential-based learning as part of a restoration project. The program is designed to alleviate the role of the trades in the preservation process and to foster interaction between the craftspeople and professionals engaged in the conservation process. This presentation will explore the development and implementation of the Mount Lebanon Field School model and evaluate the success of the program.

Jacques Akerboom - New Possibilities for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage: From Restoration to Preventive Maintenance
The restoration of historic buildings is a costly business. A method has been developed in the Netherlands for cutting the cost of preserving cultural heritage, without reducing the quality of this preservation.

The government and trade and industry collaborated many years ago to introduce a number of measures. One of these was the creation of a special organisation, the Monumentenwacht or Monuments Watch. This organisation ensures that the deterioration of historic buildings is prevented by means of preventive maintenance. Dutch historic buildings are inspected annually and the owners are given advice on maintenance work that may be necessary. The government stimulates this work by giving maintenance subsidies, loans at exceptionally low interest and tax benefits.

The effects of this policy are now gradually becoming visible. In a few years' time, the cost of preserving Dutch cultural heritage will be considerably lower than in the past. But a number of factors still make the development of this policy difficult. One of these is the training of specialised personnel to implement the policy. Interest in the building profession is declining. The building sector is already being driven to make use of personnel from the former Eastern European countries. Measures for interesting more young people in training courses for the building sector are under consideration.

Another problem that hampers the development of a good prevention policy for historic buildings is the increasing introduction of new European legislation. This legislation may be in the field of the environment, fire prevention etc. The preservation of cultural heritage receives insufficient attention when new European regulations are being developed. There are numerous examples of European rules that, often unintentionally, have damaging side-effects for the preservation of historic buildings or landscapes.

Some time ago, an international working party was set up with the purpose of creating what is known as an 'observatory' in Brussels. This is a place where all future European regulations will be evaluated for damaging effects on cultural heritage.

Bill Hole - Education that Works: Project-based Learning in the Field
As educators and trades people it is up to us to take a leadership role in forcing hands-on education to persist. Without the ability to “do”, the academic mind is limited to processing ideas and thoughts. Only 25% of society graduates with a four-year academic degree. This highlights a lack of responsibility to educate the majority of our working society; many are the potential hands-on tradespeople on whom we rely.

Public education has erroneously justified the near-elimination of vocational trades training programs in the secondary schools and community colleges. University transfers and academic degrees are of highest interest with college administration and Board members who set campus policies without consideration for the trades.

The need for an intelligent trained workforce is crucial. Look back in history to see that craftsmen were creative, resourceful and highly respected. Historically trades had a training system based on the master teaching new apprentices. Today we are losing trade masters and remain void of replacements. Today, society trains youth to seek instant gratification. This is not sustainable. Vocational education today is critical in the long-term reconstruction of the trades’ force.

As our built environments have worn through time, we have been forced to change both the building materials and processes to meet the availability of modern resources. Only in the last few years have we become acutely aware that "Sustainable Building Practices" are a must for our cultures to survive long into the future. In a short two hundred years, we have exhausted many species of food animals and fish, trees, minerals, and fossil fuels without paying attention to the long-term effects.

When we slow down, respect the historic built environment around us, train ourselves to conserve first, demolish only when we must, and to use existing buildings to train tomorrows’ generations of craft/trades workers, we will allow our future generations greater use of available resources. Following a catastrophe like Hurricane Kristina in New Orleans in 2005, we learned that government and leadership are separate topics.

In 2005 at the first ITES, we heard Takashi Watanabe from Japan eloquently state that "Old buildings themselves are the perfect textbooks for craftsmen", and from England, Gerard Lynch shared that "Today’s tradesperson is practicing the non-intellectual ability to assemble and produce."

Project-based learning means greater student success and retention. Moving beyond the College walls with customized project-based training programs will result in hands-on learning that use community projects to teach tomorrows trades skills.

Erika Johansson - The House Master School Education and Career Model (HMS)
In predominant urban conservation theory of the last two decades, it is argued that heritage conservation should be recognized as an important part of a more general urban conservation and development strategy, asserting that sustainable conservation and renewable energy usage should be integrated and more closely linked.

In the increasingly knowledge intensive economy, however, the conservation and renewal of urban fabric requires an integrated and dynamic view of the field as well as many specialized functions. The challenge is not only to preserve the unique buildings, skills and traditions of our past and link these to entrepreneurial initiatives etc., but also to provide learning for their utilization in the sustainable production, preventive maintenance and reuse of “ordinary” buildings.

In response to this demand, a new set of theoretical lenses is emerging that views education and learning in sustainable construction and design; architectural conservation; urban planning, heritage and construction management; engineering, craftsmanship and other operative functions in a more integrated and dynamic way – which would produce more relevant economic benefits overall. This approach to learning – i.e. in line with the Bologna process and the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014 (ESD) - questions the old wisdom of education and careers in construction and built heritage conservation as linear, hierarchical progressions that are centered on a specific trade, material, technique, disciplinary specialization and/or organization. Taken in the context of the above and the dramatic changes in environmental dynamism, education and career systems etc. - it is asserted that a more radical reformulation of learning and career thinking within the construction sector may be necessary.

The aim of this paper is to present the ongoing research and design of a new interdisciplinary education and career model for workers (i.e. skilled craftspeople) and professionals within the construction sector, i.e. the House Master School (HMS) to be launched in the Dalarna region, Sweden. The HMS programs will have both a vocational and an academic track and be based on the traditional knowledge and roots that exist in Dalarna. It will be according to the Bologna process, including a modular system of international training and exchange – and thereby it will also be accessible to other countries. It will be flexible and innovative in nature, with a focus on integrated forms of learning and development at various levels, regionally, nationally and internationally and in its broadest sense; as a promoter of knowledge-based economic development.

Mette Bye - The Development of a Technical-practical Building Conservation Program at HiST
The University College of Sør-Trøndelag (HiST) offers a series of courses in building conservation open to craftsmen and academics alike. The courses are designed for professionals and can be taken part-time. HiSTs approach in this education is to combine theory, practice and fieldwork. Courses of shorter duration include among others traditional brick-and claywork, traditional paints and painting techniques, understanding wood, while longer courses deal with more general issues such as assessment of values in building conservation, architectural history, legislation, documentation etc. The courses are partly decentralized, which means they are mostly held near where the student groups live and work. We have a network of experts, both craftsmen and academics, teaching at our courses. Our partners include The Røros Museum (Rørosmuseet) and the Nidaros Cathedral workshop (NDR). Exams are optional, and generate study points which can contribute to a bachelor degree.

HiST is in the middle of the process of developing a complete bachelor program in building conservation, where the understanding of vocational skills is central in the training philosophy. In a presentation at the PTN conference we wish to present our experiences, our partners and our plans for the future; with our participation we hope to hear the experiences of others and form new contacts as a means to better provide the optimal education offer for our present and future students.

Mogens Victor Andersen - "Restoring of the Building Heritage": A new In-service Training and Further Education Programme
In general most content of vocational and technical education programmes are based on the contemporary needs within the building area e.g. building techniques and the “modern” materials and architecture. It has had the consequence that much of the traditional competences and the core of the trades are limited or do even not exist. It causes serious problems when it comes to restoring and renovation of old buildings.

Technical College Odense in Denmark is now starting a new further education programme within this field. This initiative takes place in corporation with the employers and employees organisations. The main aim is to train tradesmen to understand and act in accordance with the old building techniques and original materials and craftsmanship.

To get the trade people to understand the restoring and technique philosophy, it is planned to train and educate the participant in the different materials and techniques from the different building trades. E.g. the painter and decorator must know and understand the materials used by the bricklayer. Many failures and misunderstanding occurs at the interface between the various trades and different materials.

The Danish in-service training programme allows the college to arrange more activities and allows the participant to spent time needed to challenge themselves and their trade competences. The headline will therefore be; “challenge yourselves through study of your own trade, materials and techniques”. The full training programme will lead to a certificate of “Restoring Building Heritage”. The training programmes will start October 2007.

Peter Sjömar - Crafts Education at the Institute of Conservation/Dacapo at Göteborg University, Mariestad
The Institute of Conservation/Dacapo at Gothenburg University has two programs concerning craft; historical building craft and gardening. The programs are intended to be one “leg” out of three, in the education and research of craft. The two other legs, that have just started, are; preserving the knowledge of craft by exercising, “doing” it, and building knew knowledge by research.

The reason why the studies of crafts needs to be part of a University is partly a result of the organization of the Swedish educational system, but mostly because we think that the knowledge of craft is not basically different from other fields within the academic world. Theory and practice forms a unity in crafts as well as in other academic or professional fields. The craftsman’s position in society, on the other hand, is different from academic professions. Architects, engineers, lawyers and others have a long academic history and have had access to scientific education and research for decades.

Having the craft programs within the University, does not mean that the education or the research is only theoretical. In the same way as other schools of traditional crafts exercise their skills practically, the students at Conservation/Dacapo lay bricks, do joinery, and cultivate flowerbeds and vegetable gardens. The time spent in the classrooms is relatively short; the main part of the education takes place in the work yard, in the workshops or in the garden. In this perspective there is no difference between the education at Conservation/Dacapo and other craft school.

Henrik Larsson - Education in Building Conservation at Gotland University College
Gotland University offers courses and programmes covering a broad range of topics in building conservation. There are two BSc programmes; The Building Conservation Programme and the Objects Antiquarian Programme. These programmes integrate traditional academic studies with applied and hands-on exercises.

In addition to the programmes, Gotland University offers two one year courses in the crafts. One is focused on conservation and restoration of wooden architecture and is located in Hälsingland, a region with a rich wooden architecture but also a large group of professionals specialized in conservation of wooden architecture. The other course is focused on prehistoric viking architecture. The students study building archaeology and applied reconstruction work at the open air museum of Skansen and at the World Heritage site of Birka – an old settlement and merchant town on Björkö island in lake Mälaren west of Stockholm.

Another option is a two year long further training programme for professionals like architects, engineers, conservation officers, building contractors and craftsmen, based on part time studies to make it possible to combine with work.

Kristina Skarvik & Jesper Carlsson - The Helsingborg Model: An Integrated Team Approach to Construction Planning and Management
The majority of costs in the lifetime of a building do not spring from planning or and production. Instead, they spring from the maintenance of the building. Thus, the purposes and pre-expectations of maintenance really should constitute the aims of the building process as a whole. Traditional handcrafts and skills have an increasingly important role to play in this. Nevertheless these skills are underestimated and they rarely are allowed to take part in the actual decision-making. A shift of balance in power is needed. The possibility to achieve this largely depends on the role of leadership throughout the building process. In the so called "Kärnanproject" in Helsingborg, Sweden, we address the issues of maintenance and leadership on the building site.
Requirements and measures focus on long term maintenance concerning quality of materials, construction and last but not least joint and commonly useful documentation from a technical as well as a cultural historical perspective.

The site organization in this model is made from practicing experts with experience from traditional brickwork but from different fields and backgrounds. Balance of power on site is divided into two layers: The project manager holds all executive power. Beneath the manager are all other team members with individual authority to plan, prepare basic data and to argue/negotiate when and where their respective field is concerned (e.g. a bricklayer, blacksmith, archaeologist and construction designer). Everyone was encouraged to make use of their own skill, experience and specific ”eye” or perspective to argue and contribute to the discussions. Each team member is responsible for the quality in his/her field and answers only to the project manager. Team members are required to have professional skill, in theory as well as in practice. They need to practice an individual leadership in creating opportunities and taking responsibility for the result. It is important to understand the role and the extensive mandate given. To achieve success, the team members need to be curious and willing to learn by giving and receiving information as well as knowhow from each other. The part of the project manager becomes a task to coordinate, keep a strict economy and to listen in on the different arguments posed by the team members.

The experience from working in this flat and learning organization are surprisingly good. We are all forced to think away from the ordinary, work together and negotiate towards a strict goal of quality. All the careful planning we do on quality aspects pays of directly on site but also produces an accessible basis for future maintenance. From the basis of equality of all team members on site, discussion and learning was naturally focused upon. This process, however, takes for granted that everybody is willing to take responsibility and to become part of the process through an individual leadership. Finally, exploring the relation between leadership and professional knowledge proves very promising in creating opportunities for economy and maintenance in a sustainable perspective.

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