Stewart Wright MCIOB reports on the recent CIOB Conservation Conference 2025.
The 2025 CIOB Conservation Conference showcased the hidden talents and creativity of ordinary people working on building conservation projects.
Construction work is often perceived as analytical, meticulous and systematic. Whether it involves design precision, measuring quantities of materials or project management, it is a sequence-based series of activities. While all these are essential to good building conservation, you may think it’s the last place to look for creativity or individual, unique approaches.
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Building conservation is full of creative people who often have previous careers, qualifications and hobbies in the humanities and the liberal arts. It’s never surprising to discover that colleagues are also talented artists, writers or musicians. If anything, the world of conservation attracts creative people, passionate about our layers of history and the buildings that define their sense of identity.
Most work on historic buildings requires a much higher degree of uncertainty than new construction due to the layers of alterations over time. Many changes involve a journey of discovery, unravelling older features as a project progresses.
Several types of creativity prevail through standard processes. The simplicity of sketching ideas and drawing buildings as a form of visual scrutiny remains invaluable. A photograph or laser scan is studied for an hour at most, yet the process of drawing imbues a deep understanding of form and failure. Advances in technology also pave the way for creative decisions such as the use of robots that can enter spaces inaccessible to humans.
This year’s conference was a perfect celebration of creativity rather than content based on problems, and it certainly created a positive tone. The speakers represented clients, consultants and contractors. What shone through was how everyone used their individual creativity to solve problems.
Whole life cycle
The focus of the conference was on the whole life cycle of a historic building from inception, interventions to annual maintenance. This gave speakers a unique opportunity to showcase their hidden talents. They may be hidden because they might be unconventional, yet we should all promote solution-focused ideas regardless of processes. It was clear that some of the most innovative ideas will shape future standards and solutions.
The overwhelming theme was how people involve, engage and empower each other. It was a rare opportunity to hear about smaller domestic projects that infrequently get publicity through to national heritage charities. Most importantly, the core conservation principles of ‘heritage is for everyone as a shared resource’ united the presentations.
The Conservation Conference for 2026 will be orchestrated by the new CIOB Heritage Advisory Panel. Please look out for a call for speakers in late summer to share your story.
Stewart Wright MCIOB is head of building conservation and sustainability at English Heritage and a conservation certified building surveying practitioner.
