Teaching craft skills in the building trades: the Museum of Construction and Building Materials and its legacies

该项目探索了19世纪伦敦博物馆、教育和建筑业之间的关系。它的重点是建筑和建材博物馆(MCBM)，该博物馆成立于1859年，由弗朗西斯·福克领导，由科学和艺术部监督。MCBM是V&A建筑的前身之一，它的收藏包括原材料、产品、模型和设计；许多物品被纳入V&A建筑中。该博物馆与建筑业关系密切，其展览面向工匠和学生观众。1888年解散后，部分藏品保留在维多利亚与阿尔卑斯加州博物馆。最初的目标是编制一份MCBM现存物体的目录。在维多利亚与阿尔卑斯加州雕塑部保存下来的例子，例如1973年作为未追踪发现的一组建筑模型(A.10至15-1973)。来自MCBM的其他物品现在在陶瓷收藏中，包括一块由冥王星和普罗瑟平组成的马赛克镶板，作为1923年的未追踪发现(C.94&95-1923)。该目录将支持对MCBM收集和展示实践的分析。基于对象的学习在建筑行业中的作用是重点关注的领域。这项研究将探索MCBM观众的性质，并将博物馆与伦敦艺术和设计学校提供的建筑培训联系起来。其中包括坎伯韦尔艺术与手工艺学院、巴特西理工学院和哈默史密斯艺术与建筑学院，该学院教授的科目包括砖石、管道和灰泥，以及建筑和建筑工程。学生们努力参加由科学与艺术系设置的考试。该项目的这一方面涉及到目前建筑师如Juhani Pallasmaa和Peter Zumthor以及像Glenn Adamson这样的学者对将建筑作为一种知识形式的兴趣。主要调查范围从约翰·菲西克1982年的博物馆历史到朱利叶斯·布莱恩特2017年对博物馆设计的分析。在这些工程中，确定了纳入V&A建筑的MCBM中的几个关键对象。这项研究将建立在现有历史的基础上，找出与MCBM最初失去联系的物品。较少的文献探索南肯辛顿历史的替代方法，包括戴尔·迪森关于1862年展览的工作，以及布鲁斯·罗伯逊对南肯辛顿博物馆机构历史的探索。罗伯逊批评了历史的目的论结构，这种结构认为统一的艺术和设计博物馆的出现是不可避免的；他强调了19世纪50年代至80年代占据该遗址的机构的多样性。狄松展示了1862年展览在设计和建筑技术方面的重要性。在南肯辛顿的早期发展阶段，这个项目与他们一样关注艺术和科学之间的重叠。博物馆之间的关系和维多利亚时期新学术学科的发展也引起了越来越多的历史兴趣。这包括正在进行的对牛津自然历史博物馆的重要性和牛津科学的出现的研究，以及利兹的一个项目，该项目着眼于19世纪的博物馆收藏、学术教学和新的地质学学科。该项目将通过探索博物馆在技术教育中的作用，为这一新兴领域做出贡献。通过探索藏品、陈列和观众如何互动，以及它们如何与建筑业中更正规的教育相关联，该项目将创建一幅关于MCBM在教和学中所扮演角色的整体图景。这将基于档案研究和基于对象的研究相结合。

The project explores the relationships between museums, education and the building trades in 19th-century London. It focuses on the Museum of Construction and Building Materials (MCBM), founded in 1859, directed by Francis Fowke and overseen by the Department of Science and Art. The MCBM was one of the precursors of the V&A, and its collection included raw materials, products, models and designs; many objects were incorporated into the V&A buildings. The museum had close links with the construction industry and its displays were intended for an audience of artisans and students. Following its dissolution in 1888, parts of the collection remained in the V&A.The initial aim is to compile a catalogue of extant objects from the MCBM. Examples survive in the V&A sculpture department, such as a group of architectural models accessioned as untraced finds in 1973 (A.10 to 15-1973). Other objects from the MCBM are now in the ceramics collection, including a mosaic panel of Pluto and Proserpine, accessioned as an untraced find in 1923 (C.94 & 95-1923). The catalogue will underpin an analysis of the MCBM's practices of collecting and display.The role of object-based learning in the building trades is a central area of focus. The research will explore the nature of the MCBM's audience and draw links between the museum and the training in construction offered by London art and design schools. These included Camberwell College of Arts & Crafts, Battersea Polytechnic and Hammersmith College of Art & Building, which taught subjects including masonry, plumbing and plastering, as well as architecture and construction engineering. Students worked towards examinations set by the Department of Science and Art. This aspect of the project relates to current interest in making as a form of knowledge, among architects such as Juhani Pallasmaa and Peter Zumthor as well as academics like Glenn Adamson.Previous histories of the V&A focus primarily on elements of the museum that survive into the present. Major surveys range from John Physick's 1982 history of the museum to Julius Bryant's 2017 analysis of its design. Several key objects from the MCBM which were incorporated into the V&A buildings are identified in these works. This research will build on the existing histories by identifying objects whose original connection to the MCBM has been lost.A smaller body of literature explores alternative approaches to the history of South Kensington, including Dale Dishon's work on the 1862 exhibition and Bruce Robertson's exploration of the institutional history of the South Kensington museums. Robertson critiques the teleological structure of histories which treat the emergence of a unified museum of art and design as an inevitability; he emphasises the diversity of institutions occupying the site in the 1850s-80s. Dishon demonstrates the significance of the 1862 exhibition in terms of design and building technology. This project shares their focus on the overlap between the arts and sciences in the early stages of development at South Kensington.There is also a growing historical interest in the relationship between museums and the development of new academic disciplines in the Victorian period. This includes ongoing research into the materiality of the Oxford Museum of Natural History and the emergence of the sciences at Oxford, and a project at Leeds looking at museum collections, academic teaching and the new discipline of geology in the 19th century. The project will contribute to this emerging field by exploring the role of museums in technical education.By exploring how the collections, displays and audiences interacted, and how they related to more formal education in the building trades, the project will create a holistic picture of the MCBM's role in teaching and learning. This will be based on a combination of archival and object-based study.