5 FOREWORD OUR HISTORIC environment is widely seen as one of the UK’s greatest assets, enjoyed by residents and visitors alike, and valued by sector professionals for its pivotal role in regenerating areas in relative decline. However, for others in the construction sector, heritage can be seen as an impediment to progress, placing unnecessary restrictions on development. In the rush to meet new targets for building more homes, it is important that developers never underestimate the central role of historic buildings and places to our environment, and the popularity of places which retain their significance. As Dan Roberts of Homes England puts it on page 22 of this Yearbook, those development constraints can ‘provide a springboard for invention and design innovation, for distinctiveness’. This translates directly into measurable benefits including not only the lower carbon emissions associated with the reuse of existing buildings, but also higher property values: people prefer to live and work in places which retain their links with the past. Dan Roberts’ article and the three that follow it, explore different aspects of how we approach the conservation and development of places. The focus here is on ‘context’, the fundamental term that describes the relationship between buildings and their surroundings, providing mutual meaning and creating places and shared memories. These articles follow this theme from the highly successful 2025 IHBC Annual School, held in Shrewsbury in June. A fifth article, by Frédéric Bosché and Jiajun Li of Edinburgh University, continues their research on AI, published in the 2024 edition of the Yearbook, exploring its use in monitoring the condition of roofs. From these articles, it is clear that the skill sets required to understand the significance and condition of historic buildings and sites, and successfully intervene in them, encompasses those of a broad range of heritage professionals. This includes historians, conservation architects, surveyors, structural engineers, town planners and conservation officers, in both central and local government, as well as in the private sector. Although the numbers of heritage professionals employed by local authorities has been declining, the interest into these professions continues. There is however the challenge that specialist conservation courses are not publicly funded, despite the urgent need for more conservation specialists to deal with the current extensive levels of work being carried out in historic buildings and sites. Graduates, from our own MSc in Architectural Design for the Conservation of Built Heritage at the University of Strathclyde, are great assets moving on into a wide range of organisations across the field of the built environment, and indeed some of them are also now teaching. Professional conservation and heritage skills are then nurtured and developed as requirements of all professional bodies for Continuing Professional Development. CPD is essential for building on the knowledge acquired at post-graduate level, for developing professional expertise through the workplace, and for learning from our peers working in the sector and in other specialist disciplines. It is here that the professional and expert networks of the voluntary sector bodies like ICOMOS, the SPAB, ICON and the IHBC are so important. In particular, as the principal professional body in the sector, and the only one that encompasses the full spectrum of constructionsector professionals, the Institute of Historic Building Conservation provides an extraordinary network of specialists, as is obvious from the scope of this year’s IHBC Yearbook. Since its emergence in 1997 from the Association of Conservation Officers, the IHBC has evolved to include conservation architects, engineers and building surveyors, as well conservation officers, with over half its members now working in private sector organisations. It is particularly welcome to see the institute progress to chartered status – a process in which I have been personally involved as a supporter – and it is gratifying to learn that the IHBC has now been given the go-ahead by the Privy Council Office for the submission of a petition for charter. While the development reflects the hard work and diligence of its officers and trustees, their success will be of little surprise to those who are familiar with the institute’s many excellent publications, in print and online, nor to those who attend its conferences and schools, or who enjoy the benefits of its network of regional branches. Dr Cristina González-Longo RIBA SCA RIAS FHEA RSA, Director of the MSc in Architectural Design for the Conservation of Built Heritage at the University of Strathclyde and President of ICOMOS CIF International Scientific Committee on Education and Training. CRISTINA GONZÁLEZ-LONGO
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