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'Doing Away With Restoration Subsidies is Short Sighted'

November 17, 2004

Doing away with so called 'kanjersubsidies' for the restoration of important monuments such as the St-Jan's Cathedral in Den Bosch would be short sighted. That is the opinion of Prof.Ir. Rob van Hees, who will give an inaugural speech for his chair in the field of Conservation Techniques at the Faculty of Architecture at TU Deft, on Friday 19 November. The government is considering doing away with the subsidies, which were introduced a number of years ago, because of cost cuts. "This is not a smart thing to do, because many long term plans have already gone into effect," says Van Hees. "If you stop in the middle of the process, you are, in fact, throwing away money."

Van Hees will not only criticize the possible termination of the subsidies in his speech, but he will also discuss how money can be saved during restoration projects. This can be achieved through better coordination between the various parties involved, such as the restoration architect, the (sub) contractors, the municipality and the Netherlands Department for Conservation. According to Van Hees it is now often the case that technical operations in restoration fail partially or completely, while one of the parties actually does have the technical knowledge to ensure the success of the procedure.
The professor observes a 'knowledge phobia' in all the parties. "Our research has shown that the one is afraid to gain knowledge from the other. Possibly because of a fear of discovering that the ways in which things were done beforehand, were often not the best ways."

It is Van Hees' opinion that a central role in the improved coordination of restoration projects must be played by the restoration architect. This makes it necessary that the technical knowledge of architects is improved.
"The current emphasis in the architecture course is on design. The technical knowledge, especially regarding materials, is lacking." Van Hees hopes, in this new chair, to be able to contribute to the decreasing of the knowledge gap of (restoration) architects.

This chair is the first to approach the restoration from a technical perspective. According to Van Hees, who also conducts research at TNO Bouw, the new chair fits into the current trend in restoration. Where, at first, it was seen as an artistic and architectural process, it is more and more becoming a process that is supported by science. "Especially the interest in the materials (engineering) aspect is growing."

Delft University of Technology

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