CAREER DISCOVERY PROGRAM IN HERITAGE PRESERVATION
Offered for the first time this year, this program uses the ongoing restoration of a listed Modernist house as a pedagogical tool to explore the challenges facing French built heritage.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
• Provide theoretical foundations on historic preservation in France
• Offer workshops to develop skill sets for built environment-related fields
• Provide hands-on, immersive instruction to help students to focus on a career path
• Emphasize the importance of French context while mobilizing an international
community of professionals and academics
• Provide networking opportunities through local actors
• Emphasize the exceptional heritage of the Parc de Sceaux and its surroundings
TARGETED PROFILES
• Foreign-based students with interest in pursuing graduate degrees in architecture,
historic preservation, planning and real estate
• Paris-based study abroad students, already enrolled in a French program, with
interest in prolonging their stay to focus on a built environment-related course
COURSE THEMES
• Understanding the perspectives of numerous property market actors
• Examining authenticity in historic monuments
• Differentiating conservation and restoration, renovation and adaptive reuse
• Analyzing the qualities of existing forms versus architectural heritage
• Evaluating the importance of carbon footprint and energy efficiency over preservation
SCHEDULE
• Monday through Friday, two 4-hour sessions per day.
• Morning session in Sceaux for seminars on heritage preservation case studies
• Afternoon session in the field to visit noteworthy sites of adaptive reuse
• Optional third week for individual projects/ research (with instructor supervision)
SCHEDULE - to be confirmed
COURSE THEMES
• Understanding the perspectives of numerous property market actors
• Examining authenticity in historic monuments
• Differentiating conservation and restoration, renovation and adaptive reuse
• Analyzing the qualities of existing forms versus architectural heritage
• Evaluating the importance of carbon footprint and energy efficiency over preservation
STUDENT TAKE-AWAYS
• Knowledge of local context (historical, sociological, political, morphological, etc.)
• Visual observation and analysis skills: drawing, modelling, photography
• Research skills: library and archival resources
• Communication skills: interviewing and networking with local professionals,
presenting workshop production to jury, portfolio preparation
• Orientation for further academic and professional experience in France and abroad
INSTRUCTORS/ GUEST SPEAKERS
• Local architects and planners involved in heritage preservation
• University professors in related fields
• Elected officials/ municipal planners
• Non-profit organizations with roles in funding and advocacy
• Local property owners
INTERESTED IN JOINING US?
WHERE?
• Program based in the town of Sceaux, 20 minutes from central Paris via public
transportation (RER B)
• Excursions throughout Greater Paris
WHEN?
• 2-3 week program to take place after spring term
• Program launch June 2025 (7th-26th, depending on enrolment)
STUDENT COST
• Tuition to cover mostly instructor fees and guest lectures
• 2,000 - 3,000 € depending on 2 or 3 week participation
• Including homestay program in Sceaux (chez l’habitant)
FINANCIAL AID
Two full-scholarships available for program assistants
TO APPLY
• Submit CV and cover letter by email to villatrapenard@gmail.com
• Rolling admission, until cohort of 10 students is formed
PROGRAM COORDINATOR
Jacob Simpson holds degrees in architecture (B.A. New York University, 2001) and city planning (MCP, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2004; PhD, University College London, 2021).
Since moving to France from the United States in 2004, Jacob has been working in the Paris metropolitan region in real estate and economic development, at the interface between public authorities and private investors. His experience advising foreign companies in their location decisions fueled his doctoral research on how different property market actors shape and define the quality of the built environment.
A long-time advocate for the preservation of architectural heritage, Jacob’s attention focuses on understanding the actors and industries investing in buildings recognized as “monuments historiques” by the French State. His latest publication for The Routledge Companion to Creativity and the Built Environment uses qualitative analysis to look at how a specific set of groups and individuals - frequently referred to in academic literature as "the creative industries" - invest in and associate with specific urban qualities in the Paris region.
Jacob has taught on various subjects from territorial marketing and planning policy to architectural and urban history at Sorbonne Université, l’Ecole d’urbanisme de Paris, l’Institut Français de la Mode and several American universities in Paris.
Through this career discovery program, Jacob puts forth his role as caretaker of the Villa Trapenard to share the villa’s restoration challenges internationally while involving the local community.
Jacob Simpson
linkedin.com/in/jsimps/
** PROGRAM LAUNCH - JUNE 2025 **
The Villa Trapenard is pleased to host an immersive
English-speaking career discovery program for students with interest in architecture, urban design and planning.
Workshops and field study in Greater Paris to focus on the challenges facing the preservation and reuse of existing buildings and built heritage, with particular attention to 20th Century owner-occupied houses in the town of Sceaux (4 miles south of Paris city limits).