Valuing Innovation in Design and Heritage - Imagining Future Built Heritage
Built heritage, the selected historic buildings and places, form a small but important part of the urban and rural landscapes of Britain. They are valued not only as symbols of past societies imbued with cultural, social, political and environmental significance, but with an additional importance in the contemporary period. Economically, they are key element of tourism, cultural assets that assist in generating wealth for local communities and nationally. Socially, they help to define the character of places, attracting new residents into communities and often forming centre points around which community values are formed. And culturally, they represent an inheritance from the past. As such built heritage is viewed as worthy of maintenance and preservation, with the acknowledgement that as selective ‘windows’ into the past they have value today.
The presence of much of the built heritage in the contemporary landscape is however relatively accidental, existing because it has weathered change or in more recent times been viewed by subsequent society as worthy of preservation.
While design is widely recognised in novel urban forms (buildings, public spaces etc) that meet future needs, it is less well recognised in conserving selected heritage that integrates with new and extended places. Still less attention has been given to opportunities for innovation to make the vast majority of the existing urban fabric smarter for the future. By bringing together those involved in valuing heritage and design into directed conversation, this project will
not only highlight stories of success where design SMEs have been able to create value but also provide a deeper understanding of some of the constraints which hold back others from achieving such success.
Funded by the AHRC under its Design Innovation Development Awards scheme, our research is bringing together academics, design SMEs and the national heritage agencies to narrate accounts of how design focussed SMEs have been able or inhibited from engaging with innovation in relation to heritage,
how those agencies which influence regulation and governance are engaging with design sector, and how together they understand the role and value of design in relation to heritage.
Project team:
Dr Robert Rogerson (Strathclyde, PI),
Dr Cathy Treadaway (Cardiff Metropolitan), Prof Julian Malins (Robert Gordon), Judith Farren-Bradley and James Ritson (Kingtson), and Sue Sadler (Strathclyde)
Colin Tennant (Historic Scotland), and Adrian Searle (Freight Design)
AHRC Award AH/L013983/1
Built heritage, the selected historic buildings and places, form a small but important part of the urban and rural landscapes of Britain. They are valued not only as symbols of past societies imbued with cultural, social, political and environmental significance, but with an additional importance in the contemporary period. Economically, they are key element of tourism, cultural assets that assist in generating wealth for local communities and nationally. Socially, they help to define the character of places, attracting new residents into communities and often forming centre points around which community values are formed. And culturally, they represent an inheritance from the past. As such built heritage is viewed as worthy of maintenance and preservation, with the acknowledgement that as selective ‘windows’ into the past they have value today.
The presence of much of the built heritage in the contemporary landscape is however relatively accidental, existing because it has weathered change or in more recent times been viewed by subsequent society as worthy of preservation.
While design is widely recognised in novel urban forms (buildings, public spaces etc) that meet future needs, it is less well recognised in conserving selected heritage that integrates with new and extended places. Still less attention has been given to opportunities for innovation to make the vast majority of the existing urban fabric smarter for the future. By bringing together those involved in valuing heritage and design into directed conversation, this project will
not only highlight stories of success where design SMEs have been able to create value but also provide a deeper understanding of some of the constraints which hold back others from achieving such success.
Funded by the AHRC under its Design Innovation Development Awards scheme, our research is bringing together academics, design SMEs and the national heritage agencies to narrate accounts of how design focussed SMEs have been able or inhibited from engaging with innovation in relation to heritage,
how those agencies which influence regulation and governance are engaging with design sector, and how together they understand the role and value of design in relation to heritage.
Project team:
Dr Robert Rogerson (Strathclyde, PI),
Dr Cathy Treadaway (Cardiff Metropolitan), Prof Julian Malins (Robert Gordon), Judith Farren-Bradley and James Ritson (Kingtson), and Sue Sadler (Strathclyde)
Colin Tennant (Historic Scotland), and Adrian Searle (Freight Design)
AHRC Award AH/L013983/1