understanding places 09
DESCRIPTION
Paper presented at the PhD Colloquium “Understanding Places”, University of Westminster, LondonTRANSCRIPT
A Matter of Degree: Significance, Spatial A Matter of Degree: Significance, Spatial Planning, and the Historic EnvironmentPlanning, and the Historic Environment
Kae Neustadt, Kae Neustadt, BA, MABA, MA
Centre for Archaeology, Anthropology and Centre for Archaeology, Anthropology and HeritageHeritage
School of Conservation SciencesSchool of Conservation SciencesBournemouth UniversityBournemouth University
Significance:What does it matter what matters? The act of ‘valuing’ is embedded into
human nature Heritage resources are finite Development and change are inevitable Governments are accountable Decisions must be made Transparency in decision-making is required “If you do not understand what is important,
how can you possibly make decisions about it?”
The first step in an effective heritage protection system is “identifying those aspects of the past that are most important to us and explaining why they are important.”
Planning and Significance How to meet the demands
of the modern world without sacrificing history, identity, and a ‘sense of place’?
Necessary to answer this question to be able to achieve “sustainability.”
Everyday decisions relating to development control and infrastructure maintenance must answer this question.
Planning: Where does the Historic Environment fit in? National Level: Planning Policy Statements (to replace
Planning Policy Guidance Notes) General policy guidance such as PPG 15/16
Regional Level: Regional Spatial Strategies Must contain a vision statement, a spatial strategy with a key in
diagrammatic form, sustainability appraisal and an implementation plan.
Other strategies may be integral with the RSS, but prepared as separate plans and documents
May be sub-regional or extra-regional. Regional authorities develop regional plans, but also involve county
authorities, national parks, unitary districts, and others.
Planning: Where does the Historic Environment fit in? cont’d Local Development Framework
Includes local development schemes, statements of community involvement, site-specific allocations and proposal maps, monitoring reports, planning zones, and supplementary documents.
Long-term spatial strategies and broad policies. The historic environment is not specifically addressed.
Development Control Should refer to the local development plan/ framework. Most of the day-to-day planning operations fall under this
category. Heritage management is a critical issue at this level.
Planning: Where does the Historic Environment fit in? cont’d Archaeology, Listed Building Consent, and
Scheduled Ancient Monument Consent. Case-by-case consideration May correspond to development control measures and
planning permissions, but are not the same Perceptions of limited options: excavate archaeological
sites, refuse other requests. Other types of heritage resources (parks and gardens,
battlefields, conservation areas, trees and woodlands, AONB) will have separate procedures and guidelines which may be apart from listed building/ SAM consent procedures.
The intersection of Heritage and Planning Legislation is based on the presumption
in favour of preservation of “special architectural and historic interest” (per PPG 15/16)
Therefore, these special architectural and historic elements must be defined in order to comply with heritage management legislation.
Decisions taken in the course of development control have long-term impacts and can profoundly effect societal welfare and quality of life.
Significance and value are thus the cornerstones of developing proactive and sustainable plans for the management of the historic environment.
The case for and against valuing significance
FOR Ease and transparency
in decision making Platform for public
input Ability to prioritize
management needs Increased opportunity
for education and promotion
Management & Planning Issues
AGAINST Significance varies
depending on individual perceptions
Fear of introducing bias into the system
Desire to remain ‘scientific’ in approaches to heritage management
Fear of creating an imperfect system
Academic & Theoretical Issues
The Big Philosophical Questions Does the historic environment
have any inherent value absent human perception?
If it does not, whose perception matters when determining what the best treatment for the historic environment?
Ask yourself: Is this trip necessary?
Bridging the Gap A tool for planning and
management of the historic environment, easily accessible in a format understood by heritage management professionals, planners, and presentable to the general public.
Something that could build on what has already been done by other amenity organisations and can adapt to the changing needs and resources of both planning and heritage management.
A tool that can be both locally specific and cross-sectoral.
Historic Landscape Characterisation: A Holistic Approach HLC was designed to be a
comprehensive approach to the historic landscape.
Practical tool for planning and management.
HLC is presented as a value-neutral approach to the historic landscape.
In practice, HLC “permits all degrees of importance to be considered against differing spatial and temporal parameters, relating importance for its own sake to importance for its contribution to the present, and to local character.” (Bishop 1999).
The Role of English Heritage’s Conservation Principles The historic environment is a shared resource Everyone should be able to participate in sustaining the
historic environment Understanding the significance of places is vital Significant places should be managed to sustain their values Decisions about change must be reasonable, transparent, and
consistent Documenting and learning from decisions is essential
HLC: Character, Distinction, Significance and Value
HLC is mostly informative – it provides information without guidance.
Begins with the premise that all is of interest and value (Herring 2007).
HLC is useful in providing information regarding character, but does not identify distinctiveness, significance or value in the landscape.
Planning guidance focuses on preserving and promoting what is distinct and special within the historic landscape.
Four key concepts that connect HLC and the planning agenda: character, distinction, significance and value.
Character
Identifies primarily morphological characteristics related to historic processes that created the existing landscape.
Includes field patterns, ancient and modern woodlands, settlement patterns, enclosures, recreational space and common land.
Reflects mostly historic and modern use of landscape.
Distinctiveness Combination of innate
visual harmony, functionality of natural systems, human scale of cultural features and time-depth.* Time-depth Traces of struggle and
occupation Evidence of production Amenity attributes Natural qualities Customs and practices
* from Selman (2006)
Significance “Understanding and articulating the values and
significance of a place is necessary to inform decisions about its future” Fabric and evolution Who and Why Values Values related to fabric Relative importance Contribution of associated objects and collections Contribution of setting and context Comparison to places with similar values Articulation of significance (“legibility”)
Value:English Heritage’s Heritage Values
Evidential Value Historical Value
Illustrative Associative
Aesthetic Value Design
Communal Value Commemoration and symbolism Social value Spiritual value
Broad categories can be used for determining effect of proposed change or for identifying appropriate treatment/ mitigation measures.
Evaluation Model Character forms the base of
evaluation. Without it, other aspects cannot be identified.
Distinctiveness articulates how character differs between places
Significance indicates what people consider important within a distinct place any why.
Value is a label applied for management purposes that can be useful for determining treatment when proposed change is inevitable.
Character
Distinctiveness
Significance
Value
Summary Spatial planning and development control measures do not
always provide adequate guidance for addressing the historic environment.
Planning decisions require judgments to be made about the value and importance of historic resources. If archaeological professionals are not making these judgments, someone else will.
Historic Landscape Characterisation has the potential to act as a platform and a tool to bridge the gap between planning and heritage management.
In order for HLC to fulfill this role, the issue of significance needs to be addressed.
Significance can be addressed by applying the concepts and guidelines already developed for other planning and conservation issues
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