Session: #243

Regular session

Legal protection and conservation have allowed many medieval buildings to survive to the present day, but many more have survived by accident through their continued use within urban and rural settings. Even in the Middle Ages we know of buildings being repurposed, moved, or recycled. The lifespan of a building was greatly increased when it was repurposed. Rural halls may have decayed and been converted to barns or animal houses, while sturdy timbers were recycled into new constructions or extensions to existing buildings. Today, large stone barns are often converted into holiday accommodation. Clearly the reuse and reintegration of old buildings is important in today's world, with new build making a massive contribution to climate change. Thus the study of medieval recycling and the modern reuse of buildings has a lot to contribute to our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.

This session seeks to explore the reuse of medieval buildings across Europe through two main strands - reuse in the medieval period and reuse in the modern period. Some of the topics we would like to cover include:
- medieval adaptation of buildings
- medieval recycling of building materials
- modern conversions of medieval buildings
- modern applications of medieval building techniques
- issues around the conservation of medieval buildings

Buildings, Medieval, Adaptation, Re-use

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no

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Duncan Berryman (United Kingdom) ¹

Jeroen Bouwmeester (Netherlands) ²
Laura Patrick-Dawson (United Kingdom) ³
Martin Huggon (United Kingdom) ⁴
Sarah Kerr (Denmark) ⁵