The Craft Laboratory

The Craft Laboratory at the University of Gothenburg was established in 2010 in cooperation with heritage organizations, craft enterprises, and trade organizations with the agenda to bridge research and practice in heritage conservation. The CraftLab is located in the city of Mariestad and subordinated the Department of Conservation. The Department’s research evolves around three main domains: management and conservation of built environments, the science of materials and cultural property conservation, and the craftsmanship and traditional materials for conservation. The analytical material research at the Department is state of the art in conservation materials, cleaning approaches, pigment and material degradation, historic wood, mortars, metals as well as modern materials and their conservation. The CraftLab sets out from this broad application of heritage conservation, but employ a particular focus on the practice-led research, meaning research initiated in practice and conducted through practice, with the overarching aim to improve heritage conservation. The access offer of the infrastructure consists of own laboratory capacity with equipment, archives and technical support, and also the networks of conservation projects and heritage sites involved in the research.