Gord Macdonald

Secretary General

Expert Member – Canada (July, 2018)

Gord Macdonald is a designer, builder and building conservator with more than 30 years’ experience working with wooden buildings and historic structures. He has led teams on six continents, creating a range of interesting and award-winning projects from the restoration of medieval castles in Europe to the re-creation of a 30-ton Roman ballista for BBC Television. Gord has worked at many diverse locations including the equatorial jungles of Suriname and the Ross Sea area of Antarctica where he has spent nine seasons and more than a year ‘on the ice’.

Gord is an instructor with the International Course on Wood Conservation Technology at Riksantikvaren, Norway. He is a Canadian representative to the International Wood Council, and the International Polar Heritage Committee, both are Special Scientific Committees to the International Council on Sites and Monuments (ICOMOS). Gord is also a founding member of the Wooden Places of Faith, ICOMOS Sub-Committee, the Past-president of Heritage BC, the founder of the specialist carpentry company Macdonald & Lawrence (M&L) and a partner with Heritageworks Ltd., an international heritage conservation company based on Vancouver Island, BC. Gord is a Professional Member of the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals.

Gord is currently undertaking doctoral research with the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at University of Leicester; his thesis relates to the impacts of global climate change on polar heritage and examines the ways that technology and citizen science might play a role in creating a new methodological approach to imperiled heritage sites.

www.heritageworks.ca

For publications visit

https://leicester.academia.edu/GordonMacdonald

To get in touch: ghm7@leicester.ac.uk

Areas of interest

Climate change impacts on the polar environment,

Values-based risk assessment,

Citizen science

Keywords

Climate change, polar heritage, archaeology, triage, technology