52 C O N T E X T 1 4 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 Director’s cut Conservation achievements and science One hundred and more years ago, when the planning system was still in gestation, to help inform development proposals – including, of course, public interest in heritage – local authorities were required to invite archaeologists and architects to ‘object’ to any prospective threats to ‘amenity’ that might arise from new works. In what might be conveniently called ‘pre-planning’ legislative processes of a century past, that was how public – as opposed to bureaucratic – interest in heritage was managed. Since that kind of polarised and compartmentalised approach to place management, professionals, communities and government have all come a long way.We see refinements such as dedicated conservation accreditation for architects, so they can register publicly relevant heritage skills; and standards that include data management and investigation methodologies shaping archaeological perspectives, often inspiring new histories or enriching old ones. Dedicated conservation services have also arrived (eventually), offering a more engaging and supportive interface between place, communities and the processes of change. All of these changes, alongside many others, have helped hugely in moving the care of place far beyond those century-old, preplanning days. The rise of the conservation professional is a central thread in that history of place management, and not simply as another facet in the polarisation between necessary development and archaeological study or architectural appreciation. Rather, that specialist conservation role represents an informed and – critically – properly skilled bridge-builder operating between proponents of the pre-eminence of development and those who could stultify through stasis. Most of all – and perhaps most difficult for bureaucracies to appreciate and understand – conservation examines more than the solution to that media-friendly binary problem: change or no change? Viable, sustainable solutions remain the object of conservation practice, which is nothing if it is not about developing constructive solutions. Conservation practice demands the right skills. So it is no surprise that the conservation sector’s major historic achievements concern the interaction of skills and practice. Our international model and de facto standard – the 1993 ICOMOSGuidelines on skills and training – and our national testament and manual, BS 7913, the British Standard on historic building conservation, both draw out critical threads for our profession around, respectively, skills and practice. But, as is so often the way in conservation, even these best solutions have their limitations. The ICOMOS guidelines, for example, characterise the conservation practitioner as the holder of relevant, multi-disciplinary skill sets, with a formal description of the conservation process as being one in which ‘Many different professions need to collaborate within the common discipline of conservation’. However, the place of the specialist ‘conservationist’, as the modern conservation professional role is referred to there, is surprisingly sketchy. BS 7913, re-affirming the ICOMOS principles of inter-disciplinary practice, encapsulates most effectively the practitioners’ perspective in the jointly authored preface to the IHBC’s own edition (available for purchase online via the IHBC’s website).That preface, written by IHBC chair Mike Brown and lead author on the standard, John Edwards, also an IHBC member, articulates 7913’s ambitions to ‘guide practitioners as they integrate understanding, management and change in a unified process’.That is as succinct a description of contemporary constructive conservation as you will find, and one happily far distant from the objectionsbased paradigm, and binary predilection, of outmoded and centenarian ‘preplanning’ legislation. These two documents represent considerable achievements, and serve as the perfect framework within which the IHBC’s own protocols and standards can demonstrate their progressive modernity and compliance. Furthermore, reflecting those foundations and the ever-widening appreciation of our members’ specialist interests and skills, requests for the
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