Context 164 - May 2020

48 C O N T E X T 1 6 4 : M A Y 2 0 2 0 These two modes of threat management are remarkably compatible, and represent the foundation and inspiration for the tools of our accreditation. As noted, they do reflect conservation as a wider practice focused on responding to change, especially where managing change reduces or even resolves risk, and/or addresses threat. Reinforcing such a take on conservation is the very first graphic cartoon in the long and happy tradition of Contexts ’ cartoons. It captures perfectly the same slightly bemused pride that many accredited members will recognise as they respond to the most serious of threats with an optimistic if sometimes bemused mix of learning, legislation, policy and practical pragmatism. Ultimately the strength of the IHBC’s accreditation system in underpinning real-world situations is that it does not so much narrow in on defining skills more precisely, or on demanding increasingly detailed technical exercises in repair and regeneration, as others tend to do. Rather, it builds on any and all personal specialisms and strengths, requiring that applicants demonstrate alongside primary skills a capacity to look beyond that familiar territory, and address the full complexity and spectrum of issues that can threaten historic fabric and places. In that context, we can maybe fairly ask if the COVID-19 crisis really is such an existential crisis when, on a daily basis, members confront the inevitability of change over time, accept a duty to manage that change as best they can, and secure the best conservation outcomes possible. They do this while drawing on skills and variables that span from aesthetics to economics, and politics to people. In IHBC accreditation we require applicants to ‘demonstrate’ their ability to advise on and manage conservation in all its complexity: the understanding of what we are working with, the benefits of care and maintenance, and the need to understand as best we can any intrusive actions, all as per the Conservation Cycle noted above. Applicants must offer examples of work that reveal their personal awareness of the complex diversity of skills and roles in place management and the care of historic fabric. Regardless of how apparently tiny their place in that larger scheme of things might seem, applicants must communicate to assessors the nature of their own positive role as a cog in that complex and eternal mechanism of the biggest threat of all, time, and its signifier, change. Appreciating conservation practice as a process of threat management also engenders a quite different ethos when we undertake assessment of applications. We do not focus on applicants demonstrating how they control every aspect of the minute process that lies within their particular remit.Whatever an applicant’s specialism, certainly we require it to be demonstrated, but we do not seek the standard listing of exemplary outcomes through a few ‘best-ever’ projects. In addition to looking for achievements in a specialist area of practice, IHBC assessors seek applications that demonstrate a capacity to understand, manage and deliver – or try to deliver – conservation outcomes when working outside an applicant’s core disciplines, familiar comfort zones or areas of control. This is especially relevant to the current situation, as crisis management starts with the recognition that, always, much lies beyond our control. Anyone who has prepped an application for IHBC accreditation in the last decade and more, or who has attended one of our ever- more-accessible MATE sessions, will know the models we use to manage accreditation processes. The IHBC’s Conservation Cycle uses the most generic of real-world approaches to threat management, and one of my future columns will look in more detail at some more general strategies in managing risk, threat, catastrophe and more. But for now, I am just relieved that our members are so able to deal with crises that even COVID-19 – while bringing with it what was almost unimaginable only a few months ago – is still, somehow, manageable. Seán O’Reilly, director@ihbc.org.uk Learning fromnew towns Socialist realism inaCzechoslovaknew town ThecomplexheritageofFrenchnew towns Post-warnew towns inGermany Savingnew townheritage No162November2019 InstituteofHistoricBuildingConservation IHBCAnnualSchoolNottingham Heritage, riskand resilience:confrontingconservationcalamities No161September2019 InstituteofHistoricBuildingConservation CONTEXT , the journal of The Institute of Historic Building Conservation, is sent to all IHBC members five times a year (four in 2020). Keep in touch with the latest news and views and keep your finger on the pulse of professional building conservation. The home of the conservation professional INSTITUTEOFHISTORICBUILDING CONSERVATION YEARBOOK 2019 The IHBC is the principal body in the UK representing professionals and specialists involved in the conservation and preservation of the historic environment. Its members include conservation architects, architectural historians, conservation officers, planners, surveyors and other specialist consultants, as well as academics, conservators and craftspeople. Published by Cathedral Communications, the IHBC’s prestigious 5,000 copy circulation Yearbook includes essential information on the institute and the conservation sector, and features useful articles and other information for front-line historic environment professionals. Coping with disaster: from the first issue of Context , February 1983 BUILD ING · C I NSTITUTE · To subscribe, order a copy or request advertising details please contact Cathedral Communications Limited 01747 871717