A Guest Post by Douglas Read

Via Lucis is fortunate enough to have another guest post by a distinguished contributor. Tomorrow’s post is by Douglas Read, a Scottish architect who specializes in the restoration and conservation of buildings of historical importance, a subject near and dear to our hearts here at this blog. His post is an excellent survey of the issues that guide modern conservation theory. We hope that you find this subject as interesting as we have.

Douglas Read (RIAS)

Born in Gourock, Scotland, Douglas had a peripatetic education attending schools in Dunfermline, Bath and Helensburgh before his architectural studies at Edinburgh College of Art. He worked for the Greater London Council, Reiach & Hall, RMJM and Sir Frank Mears & Partners and was a director of Allan & Sons Stonemasons, before setting up his own practice in 1985.

Living in Edinburgh he has been involved in Conservation since college both as Architect and as Contractor. He was project leader on the surveys and helped in the writing of “Buildings in the Scottish Countryside” by Robert Naismith. He has attended Conservation Masterclasses at Edinburgh College of Art and a course at the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies in York. He was a consultant in the last updating of the Edinburgh New Town Conservation Committee handbook “The Care and Conservation of Georgian Houses”.

Douglas is accredited in Conservation through the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland Accreditation scheme. He is a Past President of the Edinburgh Architectural Association and a Past President of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland on whose Council he now sits as a nationally elected member. He is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and has served on their Council. He is a member of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, on whose Edinburgh Cases Panel he formerly served, and a member of the Association for Studies in the Conservation of Historic Buildings.

Douglas has been involved in Conservation and Restoration projects ranging from a 17th century thatched cottage in Fife for the National Trust for Scotland to Georgian and Victorian urban blocks in Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site. Recent projects include cinema works from Bristol to Shetland, a new gymnasium for an Edinburgh school and several domestic adaptations for disabled clients, something in which he has specialised in recent years.

On a personal note, he is married, has two children and a grand-daughter, loves music – jazz, blues, rock and classical – and reads far too many cheap detective novels.

✚ “Theories of Architectural Conservation – A Guest Post by Douglas Read” was published on Friday, February 1, 2013 ✚