The Time Honored Architectural Conservation Documentation Project website supplements an emerging multi-volume series of books published by John Wiley & Sons and Routledge that offers a global perspective on this important subject. The first book, Time Honored, A Global View of Architectural Conservation; Parameters, Theory & Evolution of an Ethos was launched in 2009. This was followed in 2011 by Architectural Conservation in Europe and the Americas; National Experiences and Practice. A third volume addressing architectural conservation experiences and practice in Asia is envisioned for 2016.
The THACD project is an independent initiative of the authors. Its primary purpose is to assist readers and researchers find more information about the various themes in contemporary architectural conservation practice and examples of conserved built heritage that are referred to in the books.
Contemporary practice in conserving the world’s historic built environment is both pervasive and dynamic. Practically every country is involved and worldwide interest in the topic is growing. While there will likely never be a way of precisely quantifying and documenting all examples of both consciously and unconsciously conserved built cultural patrimony over the centuries, the THACD project endeavors to describe trends and accomplishments in the field at least in broad terms. Its aim is to gather intelligence about ideas and actions that offer some synthesis, and to spread knowledge especially about actions that offer new and useful solutions.
The authors — John H. Stubbs for Time Honored, John H. Stubbs and Emily G. Makaš for Architectural Conservation in Europe and the Americas, and John H. Stubbs and Robert G. Thomson for Architectural Conservation in Asia — based their research on their experiences in the field and in the archives. Though we have endeavored to consult available primary institutional and professional resources, we are, however, keenly aware that vast quantities of material about the field have yet to be identified. It is for this purpose that the present research effort, aided by this website, is being shared.
Our hope is to engage others in questioning and benefiting from a broader perspective on today’s phenomenal systems of organized architectural heritage conservation practice around the world.
