PhD Scholarship: Landscape of Post-War Reservoirs: Environment, Conservation and Perception

This Collaborative Doctoral Award is part of an AHRC NWCDTP funded team project, titled ‘Waterborne: The heritage, culture and environment of UK reservoirs’, a collaboration between the Universities of Liverpool, Lancaster and Manchester Metropolitan. Using traditional historical means alongside critical creative methods, the team project will research the design, literary history and heritage of reservoir building in the UK. Three distinct, but interlinked projects will create a rich understanding of the interrelations between design, policy, community memory and the tangible and intangible heritage of water infrastructure. This new understanding will assist in the creation of more sustainable futures and situate the viewpoints of a variety of communities and groups at the centre of a national conversation.

The project based at the University of Liverpool School of Architecture is a collaborative doctoral award delivered in collaboration with the Special Collections and Archives at the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL). The successful applicant will be supervised by Professor Luca Csepely-Knorr (UoL), Professor Richard Brook (University of Lancaster) and Guy Baxter (Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading).

The successful applicant will research the landscape architectural history of post-war British reservoirs and the links between the profession of landscape architecture and environmental and conservation charities and lobby groups such as the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) and the Council for National Parks. Building on the rich archival materials at the MERL, the project will interrogate how perceptions of landscape and countryside manifested in the landscape architectural designs of reservoirs, how they were affected by the changing socio-political context of the British Welfare State, and their impact on heritage policy and community use today.

Through the analysis of separate, but interlinked archival holdings, various site analysis methods (site visits, GIS and other visual research methods) and the examination of contemporary published sources, the research will ask: How did the changing view and perceptions of what is ‘natural’ and ‘rural’ landscape of Britain affect the design and design theory of the reservoirs? How did the political and professional spheres of the British Welfare State impact on the ideas of reservoir construction? How did the creation of National Parks, Country Parks and other spaces for rural recreation play a role in the programming of reservoirs?

We are looking for applicants with a post-graduate qualification in architecture, landscape architecture, architectural or environmental history, with experience in archival research and an interest in curation and community engagement.

Please note – all formal applications must be made via the University of Liverpool online application form .

Key enquiries to Professor Luca Csepely-Knorr email: [email protected]

Closing date: 19/02/2024