Contact Us
St Martins Dunalley

St Martins Dunalley

Catherine Hill Bay

Dunmore House

Repair and Conservation

Bolwarra House

Bolwarra House

Heritage Impact Statement & Design Guidance

Our strategies always respect the existing fabric and seek to reuse, adapt & balance contemporary needs with conservation values.

LEARN MORE

Architecture

We provide full architectural services
across a range of project and development types. Concept design, scope of works, space planning, construction drawings, work specifications & contract administration.

LEARN MORE

Building Conservation

We provide advice and management planning for heritage buildings and places.




LEARN MORE

Conservation Management Planning

Heritage and fabric assessments, reuse options, place management.


LEARN MORE

Heritage Assessments

Statements of heritage impact, archival recording, heritage and fabric assessments.


LEARN MORE

Interpretation Services

Interpretation communicates ideas, information and knowledge about locations, the natural world or historic places in a way which helps visitors to make sense of their environment.

LEARN MORE

We provide advice and management planning for heritage projects.
Our consultancy output includes:

  • Conservation Management Plans
  • Statements of Heritage Impact
  • Statements of Environmental Effects
  • Heritage and Fabric Assessments
  • Reuse Options and Advice
  • Place Management
  • Interpretation Strategies
  • Archival Recording
  • Measured Drawings
  • Maintenance Planning and Schedules

Carste STUDIO provides a full range of architectural services. Our output includes:

  • Concept Design
  • Design Options and advice
  • Scope of Works
  • Space Planning
  • Working drawings / Construction drawings / Development Applications / Authority Approval drawings
  • Construction Details
  • Joinery and Fitout
  • Work Specifications
  • Contract Administration / Inspections / Construction Phase Services

Our Heritage Building Conservation output includes:

  • Conservation Management Plans and Strategies
  • Statements of Heritage Impact
  • Archival Recording
  • Heritage Assessments and Fabric Assessments
  • Repair and Maintenance Advice

An important tool in caring for a heritage item can be a conservation management plan ( CMP).

This document provides a guide to future care and use, including any new development. Dr James Kerr describes a CMP as
“A document which sets out what is significant in a place and consequently, what policies are appropriate to enable that significance to be retained in its future use and development.
For most places it deals with the management of change”.
(Kerr, The Conservation Plan,National Trust NSW Sydney 2000: 1)

A CMP consists of three main parts: investigation, assessment and management policies.
The preparation of a CMP needs to be guided by an appropriate brief.

Stephen Booker, as the nominated architect and director of Carste has guided many projects for adaptive reuse to successful conclusions.

Please contact us for case studies. Of note are those which have been undertaken as Heritage Advisor for Port Macquarie Hastings and Kempsey Councils, with Stephen providing a pivotal role in guiding and advising on appropriate intervention and change on the nearly 400 heritage items that these Councils control.

Stephens interpretation work has covered the preparation of plaques and markers providing insights into the history of a place or cultural landscape.

The method of communication is highly reliant on the stories associated with place, not necessarily a chronological basis, but as a series of historical and cultural themes, that can be teased out visually, through touch or sound or a combination of each element.

Installations incorporating trigger words and images or in the reuse of salvaged materials from a demolished structure reused in a meaningful manner to provide the setting for interpretative plaques or images: (eg. Taree Showgrounds Cattle Pavilion, the Portland Small Arms Factory, COSCO Boolaroo and the layers of Aboriginal, European settlement and industrial development of the former coal mineshaft near Catherine Hill Bay NSW

As part of his consultancy work Stephen is an advisor to local government agencies including Port Macquarie Hastings Council and Kempsey Shire Council on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, Australia.

In this role he manages the conservation works in the district
(local government area) and provides technical advice to owners of heritage properties.
He also consults with building designers, architects and development proponents, on how they may best engage with the significant fabric of the area without detracting from its heritage values.

Australia has a wealth of early masonry colonial buildings dating from 1800 onwards, as well as a large number of timber buildings from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, that are recognised as important cultural icons.
Stephen’s conservation work has ranged across these building forms, types and construction techniques. He particularly concentrates on ecclesiastic buildings.

Stephen has undertaken historic research for his thesis in relation to a significant architect from the late nineteenth century, Mr Geo McRae. He has also researched and written a paper on interpretation of historic places for his Masters dissertation.

Stephen is a practical oriented architect who enjoys ‘getting his hands dirty’. HIs first taste of this type of work was undertaken with Adventures in Preservation (AiP, formerly named Heritage Conservation Network) in Slovenia in 2008. AiP is a non profit organisation dedicated to saving the world’s architectural heritage.

Travelling to Europe on a number of occasions, Stephen is particularly interested in how cultures respond to their important places and manage and maintain the cultural integrity of their heritage.

Submit
Thank you! Your message has been sent.
Unable to send your message. Please fix errors then try again.