Context 151 - September 2017

46 C O N T E X T 1 5 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 especially relevant if interdisciplinary skills are as central to how successful urban design is delivered as they are to conservation outcomes, as suggested by the ‘conservation and urban design’ role in local authorities. However, in developing such a statement, there are other essential lessons to be learned from the conservation experience. For example, the Guidelines itself have serious limitations. Critically, their portrayal of interdisciplinary conservation skills envisages the requisite skills sets as operating primarily only in one of two ways: as an add-on skill for an individual – such as would be recognised in conservation accreditation in a specific, traditional discipline – or as ‘conservation’ standards operating within an interdisciplinary team populated by individuals from distinct disciplines that, where possible, have skills supported by individual conservation accreditation added on to their core skills. Conceived before the establishment of the IHBC as a professional body, these models fail to register how the institute would develop its own unique brand of fully ‘ICOMOS-compliant’, interdisciplinary quality assurance. In the IHBC’s full-member accreditation, the IHBC works to a system that formally assesses an individual’s own interdisciplinary skills sets, to establish an autonomous, specialist and professional conservation-specific interdisciplinary qualification. This means that the IHBC’s accreditation, and its linked assessment criteria and processes, offer an level of quality assurance on individual competence in interdisciplinary practice, entirely distinct from that envisaged in the ICOMOS Guidelines, and one that the IHBC sees as uniquely appropriate to the complex processes of place management in the 21st century. For the IHBC, our starting point for defining skills is our model Conservation Cycle. Unlike other typical skills statements, such as the UK’s National Occupational Standards or recent statements on apprenticeship skills in England, the IHBC uses our Conservation Cycle as an explanatory model that demonstrates why our members need the skills on which they are tested. The applications of the Conservation Cycle are too substantial to be detailed here, but suffice to say in this context is that it is fundamental to all the diverse operations the IHBC, from determining and regulating practice standards, to sector advocacy, advice and public relations, and even event management. Responding also to the limitations of the Guidelines and advancing the cause of interdisciplinary conservation practice, the IHBC’s most important step to date is the recent co-production of Conservation Professional Practice Principles, supported also by the Historic Towns and Villages Forum and Civic Voice. The joint Conservation Principles is a core statement on how interdisciplinary conservation practice is embedded in the delivery of successful built and historic environment conservation outcomes. Previously introduced in this column, in terms of its relevance to the discussions here on practice, it is structured around three headline descriptions of what, why and members operate as interdisciplinary practitioners. It covers in Part 1, what we do, describing the context of interdisciplinary practice; in Part 2, why we practice conservation as an interdisciplinary activity; and in Part 3, how we practice interdisciplinary conservation. With new resources such as the Conservation Cycle and the joint Conservation Principles to serve as contexts, tools, services and backgrounds for our work, the IHBC will keep flying the flag for the unique benefits of bona fide interdisciplinary standards and practice. With these supports in place, perhaps we can look to the world of urban designers to add their considerable authority to help make the still uncommon phenomenon of interdisciplinary practice just a little more familiar to the world around us. If so, I expect that urban designers will take the time to learn both from our mistakes and from our ideas, as that tends to be the approach that distinguishes the true interdisciplinary practitioner. All the papers and sources, and much more, may be traced through links on and from the IHBC’s ToolBox at http:// ihbconline. co.uk/toolbox/ For the Urban Design Group, see http://www.udg.org.uk Seán O’Reilly, director@ihbc.org.uk