News - Scholarship

SPAB Scholar Holly reports on benefits of a flexible approach to conservation at a Palladian villa in Northern Italy

To mark International Women in Engineering day, we asked SPAB Scholar Aoife Murphy to write about her career so far and how she specialised in working with historic buildings.

A few months into their conservation tour of the UK, SPAB Scholar Bethan Watson describes being welcomed into the workshops of craftspeople

The SPAB Scholarship is a prestigious training scheme for young building professionals to gain practical building repair skills from the some of the UK’s most experienced craftspeople. Surveyor Daniel Shemming and architects Christian Montez, Holly Spilsbury and Bethan Watson have embarked on a programme of site, workshop and studio visits across the country. 

As our new Scholars prepare for their year of conservation discoveries, we look to a valued past Scholar. In June 2018 local Scholar Peter Carey (1977) showed us behind the scenes of the redevelopment of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre, a building that he had been passionate about for decades.

Every year, the SPAB Scholarship gives young architects, surveyors and engineers an opportunity to specialise in conservation work.

The SPAB Scholars explored Luton Hoo Estate, a traditional privately-owned country estate, with architect Chris Garrand.

The three newest recruits to this long-established training scheme for young architectural and building professionals begin their countrywide conservation tour.

The SPAB is pleased to announce its 2018 SPAB Scholars: Pamela Dziwulska, an architect from New Zealand, Matt Loosley, an architect from Manchester, and George Hodgson, an architect from London.

By Lilian Tuohy Main

As we enter the third month of our conservation tour, a theme that continues to arise is the importance of observing before acting. A unifying trait of historic buildings is their numerous ‘unknowns’. It is this intangible mystery that often makes a place compelling.