Master of Heritage Conservation

The Master of Heritage Conservation allows you to develop specific skills in assessment, interpretation, management, formulation of policy, and documentation of culturally significant places "including buildings, sites and cultural landscapes. You will be introduced to methods and practices of conservation, designing and building new buildings in old settings, and the history, theory, law and policy of this unique area. 

This exciting field of study is much more than just the simple preservation of existing buildings. Instead, by engaging with history, your role is to provide value to building owners, visitors and cultural bodies, all of which have a shared interest in understanding, adapting and preserving our heritage.

Heritage Conservation teaches you the techniques, approaches and methodologies required to work as a heritage consultant in policy development, regulation enforcement or as a cultural historian and commentator. Through this program you will understand the social value and embedded capital of significant sites and determine what should be preserved for future generations. Your degree in Heritage Conservation allows you to draw on our School’s extensive history in this profession, being the first university in the Asia-Pacific region to offer a program in Heritage Conservation.

This program combines the technical and aesthetic principles of architecture and architectural history with the social value of our past. You will be educated in the use of new and old material, alteration design, additions and modifications to existing buildings, and the sustainable, ethical and equitable development of sites in light of its past uses. Your core program emphasises the skills required for work with valuable heritage sites. These skills include the assessment, interpretation, management, documentation and formation of policy for culturally significant places, including buildings, sites and cultural landscapes. These core skills are taught by focusing on the duality of historic buildings their construction (in terms of design and materials) and significance (culturally, historically, economically and socially). From this dual understanding, you will be trained to develop policy that reflects the importance of all aspects of a significant building.