20 YEARBOOK 2025 BETTER PLACED HOW HERITAGE ASSETS CAN INFLUENCE THE SETTING AND CHARACTER OF DEVELOPMENT DAN ROBERTS MOST OF my professional career (if you can call it that!) has been in, or on the edges of, conservation of the built environment. To be honest, many professionals in the sector often overlap with conservation, whether they realise this or not. My love for conservation came via a degree in town and country planning, followed by post graduate studies in design in the built environment, way before urban design was recognised as ‘a thing’ once again in British planning. One of my very early course lectures told me that ‘we can’t design for the future unless we understand the past’. It is the mantra that I have worked to, if not lived by, ever since. As soon as work and finances allowed, I studied for a masters in conservation and renewal, to formalise my burgeoning realisation. Please forgive the indulgence of this mini resume, but I wanted to explain how I came to work in conservation. One of the joys of this sector, and urban design, is that, as practices, they draw on all sorts of backgrounds, approaches and learnings. Collaboration is key. I see placemaking as a mosaic, which forms a whole; the many, varied pieces of tile are only successful if they come together to make a cohesive picture. In my work for the public sector, at local, regional and national levels, I apply my learning, primarily, to inform the design of new housing-led developments. I see the mosaic better by stepping back to try to make sense of a place. The details intrigue and lure me still but, increasingly, I deal with the big picture nowadays. It is often said that ‘context is everything’. This statement is true, not only for explaining ad hoc careers in conservation but, more relevantly, when proposing new development. Context is always important but the government refocus on the regeneration of places heightens the need for thorough contextual analysis. When places are analysed, there is a craving to discover order. It is an inherent human trait. Built environment professionals often use plans to recognise the order of places and see the patterns that lie therein. Plans provide a means to plot and record places, and to analyse and understand them. Through site appraisal, a ‘pattern language’ is developed¹. The order of patterns is translated from plan to place. Repurposing of the Coal Drops Yard buildings as part of the King’s Cross regeneration in London Borough of Camden. The new roof, designed by Thomas Heatherwick, terminates a view across a new event space within the public realm, elevating the old warehouses from former backcloth to feature buildings. The gas holder structures in the background (illustrated opposite) were relocated and now contain private apartments.
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