2.5 Heritage Value, including Special Interest and Significance Conservation practice is about trying to ensure that the cultural or heritage value of a place or building is conserved. A term typically used in planning legislation protecting historic buildings and areas is ‘special architectural or historic interest’. Planning policy also refers to ‘significance’, which reflects and encompasses various factors that can contribute to ‘special interest’. Design Movements and Theories To understand special interest and significance, it is important to understand the ideas or history that created a place or building. Buildings and places may reflect different movements or trends in architecture or town planning. Understanding how the layout of an area or design of a building fits into this helps in the assessment of ‘special interest’. For example, leading works in a particular movement will be of particular importance. This could include seminal architectural works or layouts associated with particular periods or approaches. Townscape, Landscape and Spatial Characteristics An important component in understanding the special interest of more urban areas is to look at townscape and spatial characteristics of streets, spaces and the public realm. This includes enclosure and definition of streets and spaces by buildings and other features, as well as key public spaces and other townscape characteristics. For example, some traditional layouts of the 19th century are based on high-density urban perimeter blocks, with rear-of-pavement frontages, whilst the theories of the Modern Movement sometimes led to free-standing buildings in open space or the separation of pedestrians and traffic. For more rural areas, including gardens and designed landscapes, the relationship between historic or archaeological structures or places and their setting in nature can be critical to their understanding and conservation. Adjustments to that relationship, through for example interventions or new developments, need to be considered with particular care. Technology, Materials, Fabric and Features The materials of buildings, ground surfaces and structures need to be understood. Materials reflect the building technologies and trends of the time. This includes structural and constructional materials and surface materials such as plasters and other finishes. An innovative use of materials, or the introduction of new materials or methods of construction, can be important factors in a building’s special interest, 2. UNDERSTANDING VALUES OF HERITAGE 10
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