Conservation Award - TrustNews Spring 2000
THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED SURVEYOR'S AWARDS 1999
The Trust's Deputy Chairman - Michael Carden of Radley House Partnership in Winchester was honoured by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) with a People in Conservation Award. The Awards were presented by the RICS president Simon Kolesar at a ceremony held at the Institution's Parliament Square headquaters in London, attended by 150 leading members of the property and construction industries.
St Cross Hospital
Recognition in the People in Conservation Award is for individuals who have contributed most to excellence in conservation and whose achievements in this field have been exceptional. When Michael Carden studied architecture at the Architectural Association in the late '50s, specialisation in historic building work was unheard of and the word conservation itself had yet to appear in connection with buildings. After working for ten years in London and Reigate he then moved to Winchester to become an associate in the practice of the then cathedral architect. Initially concerned with new building work, the proportion of his time spent on historic building repairs and conversions grew rapidly, so that although he has never abandoned new work, conservation became his greatest interest over the next 30 years. In those days there was no means of training in the subject, but two of the partners in the practice between them accounted for some fifty years of experience which was willingly passed on, eagerly learned and supplemented with short courses.
Michael Carden
Michael Carden maintains that it is in equal measure the people with whom one works, and the buildings on which one works that do the teaching, and that there is no end to the learning. Moreover, it is a curious characteristic of conservation work that the gaining of expertise requires as much innovation as historical research.
For the past twenty-seven years Michael Carden has been a partner in the Winchester based Radley House Partnership formerly Burford Marlow Carden Partnership) and his expertise has led to his appointment as architect on a range of important historic buildings including Highclere Castle, Straffield Saye, Broadlands and the Beaulieu Estate and in Winchester St Cross Hospital and Wolvesey Palace. He is frequently consulted by English Heritage and has contributed to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.