MSc Historic Conservation: IHBC Gus Astley Student Award 2025

Fieldwork at the 11th century Castello di Cucagna, north-east Italy - Jack Parker joined participants seen here on the first of a series of hand-hewn sweet chestnut frames for the Charpentier sans Frontières rendez-vous project in September 2024

Here at Oxford Brookes, we are delighted to report that Jack Parker, a student on the MSc Historic Conservation has been awarded the IHBC Gus Astley Student Award 2025 for his Dissertation 'Squaring the Circle: What is the role of Hewing in UK Historic Conservation'. Thanks to Jack for allowing us to use some of his images and to IHBC for the following report (see the full report here)...

The winner of the IHBC Gus Astley Student Awards for 2025 has been selected by guest judge, IHBC’s Vice President Torsten Haak, as Jack Parker, (Oxford Brookes) for work on ‘Hewing’, while the IHBC’s Booth-Bird award winner is Andrew Pettifor (Birmingham City University), as both secure places at our 2026 Newcastle School alongside cash prizes.

Torsten Haak said of the process that: ‘It was an honour to be invited to judge this year’s awards.’

‘Given my long-standing involvement in heritage, I was eager to see how fresh ideas, collaboration, and purpose are shaping the sector’s future. As anticipated, I was delighted to be inspired by the innovation and integrity shown in this year’s entries.’

Jack Parker of Oxford Brookes University and the University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education (Historic Conservation MSc) has taken the top award with a prize of £500 for his Capstone Project, ‘SQUARING THE CIRCLE: What is the Role of Hewing in UK Historic Conservation?’.

Torsten said of Jack’s work: ‘This was an outstanding and highly engaging piece of work (including author’s own explanatory drawings). Hewing was a technique I had not previously encountered in the UK context, and the dissertation offered a clear, well-structured, and convincing exploration of its relevance. The contemporary significance of the topic is evident, particularly in light of recent high-profile conservation projects in France, such as the restoration of Notre-Dame.

Jack’s supervisor on the project, Dr, Karl Kropf, said: ‘It was a pleasure and privilege to work with Jack. His energy and enthusiasm were central to bringing together his direct, hands-on skills and experience and his intellectual curiosity to produce such an outstanding project . We’re particularly pleased that Jack took full advantage of the wider remit for research opened up by the recently introduced Capstone Project and for his efforts to be recognised by the judges and IHBC’.

Jack said: ‘I am delighted to receive the Gus Astley Student Award. My research explores how hewing, as a traditional method of timber conversion, can contribute to more sustainable and informed approaches to contemporary historic building conservation practice. It is heartening to see that craft-based research, focusing on traditional skills in relation to current challenges around sustainability, material understanding, and heritage skills transmission, is valued by the conservation sector. I am very grateful to the IHBC, and the award is a real encouragement at an early stage in my career.’

For more information on the MSc Historic Conservation, take a look here.

Urban Design: End of Year Show 2019

Starting the journey through the Urban Design End of Year Show 2019

This year, the Urban Design End of Year Show featured work from students on the MA in Urban Design, BA in Urban Design, Planning and Development and postgraduate research students. The exhibition opened with a private view on Friday 24 May and opened to the public a few days later. And the good news is that the exhibition runs until Saturday 29 June - so you can still go and see it! Click here for further details.

I went along the day before it opened to take a few photos...keep scrolling down to get to the Favela - created by the students as part of the Brazil Urban Design Study (BUDS 2019).

Welcome to the Favela...

For more information on our courses take a look at the course entries on our website:

BA Urban Design, Planning and Development
MA Urban Design

Student Outreach: Environmental Science Games

Each year, the students on the Foundation in the Built Environment take a module in Environmental Science. This year they have been involved in research relating to the environment and the built environment and as a result, they have developed a series of outreach games. There were 15 groups of students, all with great research topics that they chose and developed themselves with a focus on the important issues of our times. Topics included: raising awareness for consumers about the industries that are the biggest oceans polluters; how to prioritize renewable energy sources for specific climate zones and making these viable options; the electric city and inspiring the shift towards electric cars and what that would mean on a day to day basis.

Earlier on this week, the students took their games out into the community - half of the groups visited the ISIS Retirement Home (in Oxford) to show the residents how to play their games, whilst the others played their games with the student population in The Forum (a popular coffee area at Oxford Brookes). With both groups of people, the games proved to be a fun teaching tool. Take a look at the photos which speak for themselves...

Playing games with the residents of the ISIS Retirement Home...

 

...and with other students in The Forum

Maria Faraone and Paola Sassi who co-delivered the module are both Senior Lecturers in the School of Architecture at Oxford Brookes and were very pleased with the progress of work through the semester. Comments from them on the project included: 'the students have been very committed to the research and the outreach transformation, and a few of these games are exceptional. We will be encouraging them to apply to Brookes Enterprise Support to continue developing their projects as academic learning tools'.

They went on to thank the following people who have contributed to the students' learning through the semester including:

• David Brugman (Brookes Sustainability)
• Sean Elias (Oxford University scientist and gamer)
• Elizabeth Wilson and Bridget Durning from SBE
• Andrew Rendell from the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at Brookes
• Geoff Morgan (Subject Librarian at Brookes)
• Kirsten Hall (Upgrade at Brookes)
• Joe Tah (Head of SBE) for facilitating this robust module and its delivery

For more information about the Foundation in the Built Environment, take a look at our website and blog:

Foundation in the Built Environment on the website

Foundation in the Built Environment on the blog

Built Environment Research: Brazil-UK Healthy Urban Mobility

The School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes University has been awarded funding under the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) UK-Brazil collaborative research call on Healthy Urban Living. The funding is for a project entitled Brazil-UK Healthy Urban Mobility, led by Tim Jones with Sue Brownhill, Ramin Keivani and Georgia Butina Watson in collaboration with three university partners in Brazil (University of Santa Catarina, University of Rio Grande do Sul and University of Brasilia).

The research, which started in January 2016, focuses on understanding the impact of personal mobility (and immobility) on both individual and community health and well-being in different neighbourhoods in Brazil and the UK, and will develop a participatory approach to cultivate and support healthy urban mobility and to address health inequalities and injustice. The image below is taken from an article on Healthy Cities in Latin America produced by The Guardian.

And now for some background (with thanks to Tim Jones)...

Since the initiation of World Health Organization movement on healthy cities more than thirty years ago there have been increased efforts to understand how the urban environment affects health outcomes and can produce more equitable health benefits. Take a look at the UK Healthy Cities Network for more information about what's happening in the UK.

A key concern is the way in which the physical fabric of cities affects urban mobility and how this relates to health and well-being. The design of the built environment itself can support and/or discourage walking and cycling ('active mobility') and many cities are working to address these issues as the promotion of moderate physical activity as part of daily travel routines has been shown to improve overall health and well-being. The trend in the Global North, particularly in countries like the UK, has been towards a decrease in physical activity and this is associated with more widespread private car use, obesogenic environments and greater mechanisation in the home, workplace and public places. Although this is beginning to change - find out more about the cycle-revolution taking place in London or the redesign of Odense in Denmark.

In the Global South, however, the rapid growth in private motorization and the lack of value placed on walking and cycling means the association between environmental attributes and active mobility are more complex. This is having a significant impact on the urban poor and low-income groups who already engage in, and rely on, walking and cycling (and public transport) to meet their daily travel needs. The implementation of healthy urban mobility as part of the broader Healthy Cities concept, therefore, presents serious challenges in both the Global South and Global North and requires different approaches towards its realisation.

And now back to the research project itself (thanks again to Tim Jones)...

The investigation will use a mixed method approach comprising five specific field research components

• spatial mapping to understand the physical and built environment context in which mobility takes place
• a social survey to capture mobility and health and well-being profiles of selected communities
• in-depth biographic interviews to understand role of past experiences of mobility and the rationale behind selected modes of mobility
• micro-ethnographies through mobile interviews to capture contemporary everyday experience of being mobile (or immobile)
• a participatory approach to involve the local community in identifying problems and solutions for healthy urban mobility and community well-being

The work will be focused on Brazilia, Florianopolis and Porto Alegre (in Brazil) and on Oxford (in the UK). These locations have been selected because of their different spatial and demographic characteristics and the challenges they are facing in relation to promoting healthy urban mobility.

And finally how will the research make a difference?

Through the combination of novel research methods to experiment and assess and involve communities and stakeholders in active dialogue and mutual learning we hope to develop new approaches to mobility planning that seek to address health inequalities within urban areas.

For more information about the research, contact Tim Jones. Project website coming soon.

Grant title: BRAZIL-UK Healthy Urban Mobility (HUM)
RC Grant reference: ES/N01314X/1
Council: ESRC
Grant holder: Dr Tim Jones
Department: Faculty of Tech, Design and Environment

SPARKing ideas for 'Teaching and Learning' and 'Research'

Since the formation of the new School of the Built Environment (SoBE) staff and students from the different disciplines - Planning and Urban Design, Real Estate and Construction - have been meeting every Thursday lunch time at SPARK to present and discuss ideas that can impact the 'teaching & learning' and 'research' practices in the SoBE.

Reza Shirazi discussing Social Sustainability of Urban Neighbourhoods

Although the series re held within the SoBE there has been interest from lecturers and PhD researchers in architecture and undergraduate students from planning who are keen to get more involved in research.

Please send an email to Laura Azevedo if you would like to know more about SPARK or suggest a topic for presentation or discussion. ALL WELCOME.