Issue 35 autumn 2022 - Flipbook - Page 71
The IHBC at 25:
#IHBC25
Seán O’Reilly IHBC, Director, The Institute of
Historic Building Conservation (IHBC)
director@ihbc.org.uk; uk. - linkedin.com/in/drseanoreilly
Introduction
Since 1997 the IHBC – The Institute of Historic Building
Conservation - has been supporting and accrediting built
and historic environment conservation specialists
practicing in the UK and, more recently, beyond. The
advocacy, learning and regulatory services we offer together form the central strategy in the IHBC’s charitable
operations. They represent just we work to promote the
diverse public benefits and civic outcomes of informed
conservation practice.
including ICOMOS and the World Bank. The nature of
conservation practice means that our accredited members
must be able to operate across key place-making
professions. Indeed our membership includes town
planners, architects and surveyors (c.40%) with engineers,
educators, architectural historians, urban designers,
archaeologists, garden historians & landscape architects
as well as other professional and trade backgrounds.
Practice standards are maintained through Code of
Conduct, mandatory CPD, & peer review, all in line with
any credible professional bodies. As such, IHBC
membership helps identify, secure, and regulate interdisciplinary conservation practitioners, and helps deliver
conservation as an integrated part of placemaking
The IHBC’s core practice guidance, our joint
Conservation Professional Practice Principles (2016,
update forthcoming), describes how to manage the public
benefits and values of our historic fabric, structures, landscapes and places. The paper recognises how conservation has come centre-stage for 21st century, as it now sits
‘at the heart of some of the most innovative and creative
regeneration and economic development initiatives. It
is not about. resisting change, but about positive management of change for the future.’
We are however comparatively small as a professional
body, and thinly spread too. Still, our active volunteers
add essential capacity to our work and the wider sector:
the equivalent of 10+ posts across the heritage sector
when last estimated. All these matters and more helped
shape thoughts our anniversary year.
This year the IHBC reached a quarter of a century since
our formal incorporation as a charity and professional
body. Marking and celebrating that anniversary across
our 2022-23 subscription year means we can reach all the
tiers of our governance and voluntary networks. It also
helps us target our investment in the anniversary so it has
the broadest benefits for the future of conservation.
Context for an anniversary year
Context is always critical in conservation. For the IHBC,
our quarter-century anniversary coincided – usefully, as
it turned out – with a number of developments that added
further weight in our planning priorities.
First and foremost the anniversary had to continue an
ongoing modernisation in our governance! In 2020 we
adopted a new ‘Charter-compliant’ Constitution to reflect
our evolving ambitions. Reflecting the broadening recognition of our work, the new Constitution also allowed the
IHBC for the first time in its history to establish formal
activities outside the UK! Our original, 1997 Articles then almost a quarter of a century old, and clearly from a
different era - restricted our geographical options to
deliver on our ambitions to the UK. However as our
practice standards look to international models - including ICOMOS and the World Bank as noted - looking
more widely for new networks, with a global conservation
purview, seemed the proverbial ‘no-brainer’. We could
not know how prescient that planning might be until
Covid!
What is the IHBC
The IHBC is the professional body for conservation
specialists working in the built & historic environment.
We support their learning and represent their professional
interests to all tiers of UK government and more widely
too. We have nearly 3000 members and supporters – including 1000+ accredited members - across the public,
private & 3rd sectors. We also have some 30,000 users
of social and digital networks and, crucially, a website,
hosting our most important services, open to full public
access in line without charitable objectives.
As a professional body for conserving places, we promote
cross-cutting, interdisciplinary skills that align with
relevant national and international standards and models,
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