Orkney Islands Council commissioned the SCCS to carry out an appraisal of the existing conservation area in Kirkwall and to make recommendations in relation to any potential boundary review in advance of the Council submitting applications for funding through the CARS and THI schemes of Historic Scotland and Heritage Lottery Fund. Under the guidance of Dr, Ruxandra Iulia Stoica, the Architectural Conservation Masters students carried out a full and comprehensive appraisal of the conservation area and undertook a detailed historic analysis of the settlement. Following the initial student project, the SCCS refined the work and produced a detailed area appraisal and associated conservation plan. In addition to this a recommendation was made regarding the extent by which the current conservation area boundary should be extended, which built upon the indicative boundary review outlined within the Council’s 2009 Main Issues Report.
Stuart West, one of our Architectural Conservation Masters graduates, led the project with Orkney Islands Council provided this feedback following project completion:
“As the Manager of the Council’s Development and Marine Planning Service I delivered an initial presentation to the students and was on hand to answer any questions they had during their stay in Orkney. I subsequently received a number of interesting presentations from the students prior to SCCS taking forward their initial work to produce the final area appraisal. I was very impressed with the detail and quality of the final document, and with the supporting materials that were produced to assist with future public consultation and participation events (such as interpretation boards), and I would have no reservations about working with the University once again in the future.”
Following the success of the report, we are pleased to have been given the opportunity to produce three further Conservation Area Studies this academic year, with the study trip scheduled in October 2012.
