Session: #540

Session, made up of a combination of papers, max. 15 minutes each

Buildings serve to structure experiences and connections, from the functional requirements of living to more ephemeral social practices. They are both a material object and a container for such objects, just as they can be both a symbolic entity and a container for them. By understanding the development, use, and reuse of buildings, construction techniques, or building traditions throughout the medieval period there is the opportunity to highlight the multi-faceted role these structures carried out in the past.

However these structures do not just hold this multi-faceted role in the past, but they continue to act upon the world in the present, helping to structure our approaches to tourism, heritage, and conservation in the future. The manner in which medieval buildings are valued, protected, and interpreted to the public is tied intimately to the more traditional scholarship which aims to understand these sites in the past. It is hoped that by bringing these elements together a vibrant discussion on the importance and role of medieval buildings in the past, the present, and the future can be elicited.

This session aims to include a mix of papers and topics, including more traditional buildings studies, archaeological syntheses of traditions or types, the nature of buildings in their landscape, conservation, heritage management, and the role of buildings in policy, but we also welcome those that look more broadly or that cross and join topics.

Medieval buildings, heritage, architecture, space

yes

no

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Mr Martin Huggon (United Kingdom) ¹

Dr Sarah Kerr (Ireland) ²
Dr Duncan Berryman (United Kingdom) ³
Dr Jeroen Bouwmeester (Netherlands) ⁴