School of Restoration Arts
Founded in 2006, the School of Restoration Arts offers a three-year, post-secondary Diploma in Heritage Conservation which combines academic and apprenticeship learning, taught by over 50 faculty associates who are leading practitioners in the field. [1] The School accepts a maximum of 18 students each year. [2]
The following are examples of courses offered in three primary areas of study: [3]
I. Research and Documentation
- Conservation theory - a cultural landscape approach to understanding and transforming historic places
- Historic research methods - oral and documentary research, identifying social value, sources
- Archaeological research - theoretical and legislative framework
- Architectural history - high style and vernacular architecture, traditions, technologies, styles
- Landscape history – urban and rural landscapes, research and documentation, garden history
- Cultural practice - aboriginal perspectives, tangible and intangible heritage, ecological awareness
- Documentation - measured drawings, hand-drawing, AutoCAD, architectural photography, interpretive recording
- Field investigations - condition analysis, identifying and dating, reporting
II. Planning and Project Management
- Historic structures report - compiling research and documentation findings
- Cultural landscape studies – heritage districts, complex sites, cognitive mapping, artifact and ritual
- Statements of significance - identifying historical, physical and social value, tangible and intangible components, designation options
- Conservation plan - preservation, restoration, rehabilitation and adaptive reuse, contemporary design interventions
- Business models - real estate practice, the restoration economy
- Legal and zoning issues - heritage legislation, building codes, zoning bylaws
- Energy systems - traditional and alternative theory and practice, sustainable design, theoretical and empirical models
- Project and construction management – coordination of specialized materials and skills, interdisciplinary approaches, design-build.
III. Craft and Design Skills
- Stone and mortar - basic geology, quarrying, stone dressing and coursing, stone carving, lime mortars, conservation techniques
- Brick, terra cotta – history, physical and chemical properties, traditional practice, repair, conservation
- Concrete – mass and reinforced concrete, precast, traditional and contemporary practice, patterns of decay, conservation
- Plasters - materials, applications, plain and decorative plaster, cast plaster, conservation, replication
- Wood - species, milling, traditional and alternative tools, carpentry, joinery, doors, windows, repair
- Metals - forge practice, ironwork, sheet metal work, metal repair
- Glass - leaded and stained glass windows, glass replacement, repair and restoration
- Fittings - hardware, traditional and contemporary lighting
- Design – setting parameters, continuity and creativity, design as a material-based and site-based activity, drawing for design
- Conservation science - basic chemistry, environmental issues, artifact care
Campus
Willowbank's campus is composed of two main parts, a 19th-century estate, and a former village elementary school with its surrounding lands. The former, described in further detail below, traces its history to 8,000 years of human habitation. The landscape of the estate includes a ravine and a hill upon which sits a 19th-century stone mansion. Newly built and re-built outbuildings have been constructed to house student workshops, including a barn and a forge and stone studio. [6]
Adjacent to the estate is the former Laura Secord School in the centre of the village, bought in 2012 by Willowbank after it was abandoned. The transfer is designed to house school activities while also returning the building and lands to community use and creating affordable housing. Its original wing was constructed in 1914, with substantial additions made in the 1950s. The original, two-classroom building housed students upstairs while the lower level was a centre of village life. [7]
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