Conservation Engineers
What do conservation engineers do?
Most engineers are trained to design modern buildings using modern materials. Conservation structural engineers have chosen to enhance their expertise to provide extensive knowledge on the use, behaviour and degradation of the materials used in historic buildings. This gives conservation engineers a superior insight into the problems which may develop in older buildings and allows them to develop solutions that cause the minimum of disruption to the building fabric.
We are passionate about conservation engineering! We think the conservation of historic, listed and ancient buildings is an exciting part of our work and we enjoy the satisfying challenge of saving a building or parts of a building from decay. Our conservation work has helped our clients repair and restore buildings or been successful in finding a new use for a once redundant structure.
We have extensive, award-winning, specialist knowledge of historic, listed and ancient buildings. We are very proud of the projects we have worked on as they ensure some of the country’s most beautiful heritage buildings have been preserved for their owners or the public to enjoy for many years to come.
We always give careful consideration to the philosophy of repair in the context of our design requirements to achieve an end-result that is beneficial to the building and the client.
We use a sympathetic and pragmatic approach to understanding structural issues of old buildings and have been accredited by the Conservation Accreditation Register of Engineers (CARE) for our work.
CARE was established by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) to raise the standard of conservation engineering across the industry. The register is designed for those individuals who wish to demonstrate a defined level of competency in the application of conservation within the construction process.
The main aims of CARE are to:
Help clients select a suitable engineer with proven conservation experience
Promote sympathetic and best practice in engineering conservation
Raise the awareness of conservation in the engineering profession
Encourage education and training in conservation engineering
Our lead conservation engineer and building preservation expert Paul Carpenter prepared five case studies as part of the process, followed by an assessment and a professional interview.
We also work with several conservation bodies, including the National Trust, English Heritage, Historic England, The Landmark Trust and the Diocesan Advisory Committee.
Conservation accredited engineers
Historic building conservation services at a glance
Feasibility assessments and appraisals
Structural reports for planning and listed building permission
Justification calculations for existing elements; or strengthening and repairing elements
Detailed drawings and specifications including repair and strengthening recommendations
Award-winning preservation of historical buildings
We have won multiple awards for a range of conservation projects. Here are some of the more recent wins:
John Betjeman Award for Excellence in the Conservation and Repair of Places of Worship 2022 - St Peter's Church, Knowstone
LABC Building Excellence Awards 2021 – Best Conversion To Create A Single New Home - Grand Finals Winner - Willowplatt Barn, Aveton Gifford
RIBA National Award 2021 & RIBA South West Conservation Award 2021 - Redhill Barn, Devon
Conservation engineer near me
If you want to find out more about our conservation engineering expertise, you can peruse examples of our work or meet our team here or give us a call to talk through your historic building conservation project.