SIR BERNARD FEILDEN

CBE, D.Univ., D.Lit., Hon. FAIA, FSA, FRIBA, AADipl(Hons), Director Emeritus ICCROM, Architectural Conservation Consultant

COTAC Trustee Sir Bernard Feilden is now practising as a Consultant from his home at Stiffkey, and is associated as such with his old firm of Feilden & Mawson, working from their Norwich and London offices. After war service with the Indian Army in Iraq, Iran and Italy, he trained at the Architectural Association in London, having started with the Bartlett School just before the War. As an architect leading a large practice, which he founded in 1954, he carried out domestic, industrial, commercial and educational projects, and his firm won over fifteen architectural awards, for six of which he was personally responsible. He was Surveyor to St Paul’s and Norwich Cathedrals, and York Minster, the largest Gothic Cathedral in Northern Europe.

He was Consultant architect to the University of East Anglia, 1968-77, completing the initial development of the campus. In the urban planning field, his leadership in the Chesterfield Conservation Scheme was most successful in saving a historic centre from destruction, and this work received the Europa Nostra Silver Medal in 1982.

Besides looking after the maintenance of a large number of historic churches, his technique of meticulous inspection saved the spire of Norwich Cathedral and the fabric of York Minster from dangerous situations which might have been disastrous, and the work at York is described in his book The Wonder of York Minster. His major book is The Conservation of Historic Buildings published in 1982, with a revised paperback edition in 1994, reprinted in 1995. He also wrote, for UNESCO in 1980, An Introduction to Conservation, and A Manual for the Management of World Cultural Heritage Sites n 1993, followed by Between Two Earthquakes in 1987, and Guidelines for Conservation in India in 1989.

He lectured in the Architectural Conservation Course of ICCROM (the International Centre for the Study of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) in Rome, regularly from 1972-1994. He was Director of ICCROM, serving from 1977- 1981. It was then that the UK Government decided to withdraw its membership of ICCROM but Feilden was able to get this mistaken decision reversed, though after he had resigned on the grounds of his wife’s ill health.

He has lectured in Britain on Conservation at York, Edinburgh, Bristol, Liverpool and London and also in Bruges and Berlin, and run short courses in China, Iran, Iraq, Sri Lanka and Pakistan for ICCROM; lectured extensively in India and the USA at the Universities of Columbia, Columbus, Cornell, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Berkeley.

During his practice as an architectural conservation consultant, he has carried out several missions for UNESCO, including advising the Indian Government on the structural condition of the Taj Mahal and the Sun Temple at Konarak, and the Chinese Government on the conservation of the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Mojao Caves, the Terracotta Soldiers in Xian, and Mount Teishan. He has also advised Works New Zealand on the conservation of the Parliament Buildings in Wellington, and Feilden and Mawson on the restoration of Marlborough House and Hampton Court Palace.

His is an Honorary Doctor of the Universities of York, Gothenburg and East Anglia, a Fellow of University College, London, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and holds the Diploma of the Architectural Association with Honours, and was named Director Emeritus of ICCROM in 1983.

In 1986 he received an Aga Khan Award for his part in the conservation of the dome of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, initiated when he was Director of ICCROM, and executed by Paul Schwartzbaum. He also served on the Award Steering Committee for The Aga Khan Award for Architecture in Islamic Countries, from 1993-95. In 1996 COTAC Trustee. he visited Alberta to advise the state government on the management of two of their World Heritage Sites.

He served as a representative of the Royal Institute of British Architects on the Ancient Monuments Board from 1962-1977, and as a member of the RIBA Council 1975- 77. He was President of the Ecclesiastical Architects’ Association in 1976, and the Guild of Surveyors also in 1976. From 1981-1987 he was President of ICOMOS UK (The International Council on Monuments and Sites). Having been made a Commander of the British Empire in 1976, he was created a Knight Bachelor by the Queen in 1985. He is currently serving on the Fabric Committees of Norwich, Ely and St Edmundsbury Cathedrals.

Stiffkey Old Hall, Wells next the Sea, Norfolk NR23 1QJ, England.
Telephone/Fax: +44(0)-1328 830 585