CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 59 New member profile Rebecca Barnett While I enjoyed learning about history as a child, my route into conservation really originates from an interest in new design. Early on, I was concerned by the quality of new developments and the lack of local distinctiveness of many of the new housing estates that I was seeing. By eight years old I was designing new buildings and building alterations based on estate-agents plans. This led me to a degree in architecture and planning, and subsequently to a position in a multidisciplinary practice of architects, planners and urban designers, where I gained my first taste of heritage planning. Keen to specialise in heritage, in 2015 I applied for a conservation officer role at my local authority, Vale of the White Horse District Council (VWHDC) in Oxfordshire, but was unsuccessful. Undeterred, I joined the IHBC as an affiliate member, and sought to increase my knowledge and experience of conservation. In 2018, I returned to university to study a PgDip in historic building conservation at Birmingham City University, with the ambition to make heritage my full-time job. While studying I became a conservation officer for Worcester City Council. In 2021, looking to return home, I applied again for a conservation officer position at VWHDC and South Oxfordshire Council. Finally, six years after my original application, I was offered the role, which I still hold today. Since starting here, I gradually put together my application for full membership, with the approaching birth of my daughter the final push for me to submit. Happily, I received full membership two months before she was born. I was already MRTPI-accredited and wanted to add IHBC to my name, to reflect my conservation experience and professionalism in application responses and appeals. I love the variety of my role in the buildings I get to see and the work in which I am involved. Every day is a new lesson, learning about different ages and types of buildings, and new retrofit technologies, and responding to policy changes. The IHBC plays a significant role in building skills and sharing knowledge in a rapidly changing political and cultural context, with increasing discussion of energy efficiency, embodied energy and the contribution that the re-use of historic buildings can make. The IHBC is in a great position to champion the benefits of conservation, encourage consistency of planning decisions across local authorities, and develop conservation philosophy and member knowledge. I look forward to attending future events, getting to know other members in the region and, of course, learning from others via Context. Rebecca Barnett is a new full member of the IHBC. The Vale of the White Horse, looking north from the Ridgeway (Photo: Philip Jelley, Wikimedia)
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