The Construction History Society is the society for all those who are enthusiastic about any aspect of the history of construction. Our members come from all walks of life. You might be someone who has an interesting story to tell, someone who collects items to do with buildings or any scholar who works on the history of buildings. We encourage people to take an interest in how the world around them has been built and those that built it.
The Society is devoted to the promotion and study of the history of construction. It aims to identify and protect sources of information and archives to do with construction history and to organise and sponsor events and publications that help achieve these aims. It has members from all over the world.
Read more about the benefits of membership and how to join here.
Still confused about what construction history is? Read more here
We are delighted to be able to announce new dates for the Eight Annual CHS Conference and International Symposium which will take place from Friday 27 to Sunday 29 August 2021.
The theme for the conference this year is Professionalism and the Building Trades. The first day will be devoted to papers on this theme. The call for abstracts is here
The second day will continue the theme but also include papers on any aspect of Construction History. The general call is available here.
The conference will also contain a session or sessions on Fountains and Water Supply. The call is here.
The conference will take place, presuming social distancing is no longer required, over three days- Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The conference directly follows on from the one day James Essex conference (see below) and delegates may wish to attend both. Papers and lectures will be held on Friday and Saturday with vists on the Sunday. A gala dinner will be held on Saturday night. Saturday will also be the day for the the AGM, Annual Lecture and International Symposium. Any queries please contact Natcha Ruamsanitwong (chs@aha.cam.ac.uk)
Viewing papers and Presentations from Last Year’s Conference
The Seventh Annual CHS Conference is still online. 53 papers were peer-reviewed and presented.
The general theme of the conference was Iron and Steel but there are papers on a wide range of subjects.
See the conference website here
All the papers and presentations are available online here
The proceedings are available to order online (price £40) here
Queens’ College, Cambridge, 26 August April 2021
This one day conference on 26 August 2021 directly precedes the Annual Construction History Society Conference from the 27-29 August 2021 and is specifically focused on the work of James Essex, an eighteenth century architect and carpenter who lived and worked in Cambridge.
The conference proceedings will be published as book. The papers have mostly been decided but this is an open call for any researchers who wish to be involved in the conference and to contribute a chapter to contact the editors as soon as possible using this call for abstracts.
We are delighted to announce that the proceedings are now available to buy and can be ordered here
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c/o Department of Architecture
Cambridge University, Scroope Terrace
Cambridge, CB1 1PX