home page index of articles    
COTAC COTAC COTAC
COTAC INTERNATIONAL
 CONFERENCE 1999
Supported by the European Union Leonardo da Vinci Programme, ‘Transfusion’ Project

Summary of Conference papers read by:

Conference Introduction Conference Summary BRE Peter Brimblecombe Derek Latham Paul McMahon David Tomback

Summary of Stephen Bond's conference paper

Conservation Plans have required conservators to think about buildings in terms of their ‘significance’, as the Plans put it, not just to the built heritage of the nation, but to the social and cultural life of the local community, to tourism, or to any other aspect that might previously have been ignored.

    Stephen Bond

According to Stephen Bond, a director of Tufin, Ferrabv & Taylor, Conservation Plans are also helping to improve the management of conservation projects: “I have been banging on this particular drum for the past five years or so,” he said, “and in the past two years I have detected the sound of the cavalry coming in the form of Conservation Plans.”

He described the Plans as “tools for sound and responsible management and decision making” and said management “lies right at the heart of sustainable conservation.”

He also said it was perhaps typical of the conservation world that discussion about the Plans had concentrated on whose were best and who should produce them, rather than how best to apply them.

He introduced several case studies illustrating the significances of particular projects. One of them was Tower Hill, which he said had always suffered from being considered the setting for the Tower of London, rather than an open area with a significance of its own. Cities did not constitute a few important historic estates sitting like islands of significance surrounded by a sea of indifference. The Conservation Plan approach was as relevant to urban open spaces, everyday structures and even new build as it was to the ‘great and the good’ of the built heritage.

He even thought the name ‘Conservation Plan’ was one of the problems of the Plans because it immediately fixed people’s focus on conservation values, whereas significances other than preserving the building could be more important. “You have to accept that sometimes the heritage interest will lose out.”

He said management was ignored in the education of the industry’s professionals and that “the concept of management being vital to the future of conservation is a very challenging aspect to some people”.

The mention of education is very relevant in the context of COTAC (Conference on Training in Architectural Conservation) because the organization was established, in 1959 specifically to increase the pool of knowledge about conservation among professionals.