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Heavy Oak Carpentry & the repair of timber framed buildings is one of the more romantically emotive disciplines in Historic Building Repair. However there are many solutions to the same problems and all are useful provided their strengths, weaknesses and appropriateness are well understood within a thorough practical and aesthetic understanding of the building in its context.

The talk is impressively illustrated with a wide range of examples. It does not so much aim to teach to specify, but rather looks at a diverse range of case studies and examples and discusses the good, the bad, the ephemeral and the anachronistic in each, and weaves these conclusions through the treacherous web of conservation philosophy, functionality and primary purpose, aesthetics, cost/value et al.

It covers the more common approaches: Carpentry Repair, Steel Repair, Resin Repair, "Open Heart Surgery" & Laminated Repairs. It questions the reasons for preferring any one method over others and concludes that a combination of the weaponry available in the arsenal serves the building and the client best.

It questions the idea of dogma, or that "there is only one way to do it, and that is the right way" and argues that there is "no one right way to do it" but that by learning to "listen" to the fabric and understanding the circumstances, a rational, informed and pragmatic strategy may be planned for "that building, built at that time, under those circumstances, for this client, in today's market".

Inevitably it touches on the closely related subjects of "Cob, Wattle & Daub"

Ian Constantinides trained as a materials scientist with the Atomic Energy Authority before he founded St Blaise Ltd, one the country's leading firms working in Historic Building Repair and the Conservation of Architectural Works of Art. Ian lectures & teaches regularly both in the United Kingdom and abroad. He presents events in the English Heritage Master Class series & teaches on many post graduate courses in Building Conservation as well as being the founding director of St Blaise Ltd, now a part of the Stonewest Group of Companies

CPD Record: 3 hours of formal CPD, core curriculum subject – various aspects

Please visit www.stblaise.co.uk| and www.stonewest.co.uk| for further information on St Blaise Ltd.