IHBC Yearbook 2016

20 Y E A R B O O K 2 0 1 6 inception – encouraging us to buy or use a product by making it seem the easiest option. Now the same methods are being applied in a wide range of fields including health, wellbeing, social action and philanthropy. Can we safely assume that nudges are good, but behaviour manipulation is bad? Don’t they use the same techniques? McClelland concludes by suggesting that the historic environment sector could deploy nudging in its efforts to encourage people to get involved with their local communities and heritage. Sarah McLeod’s article ‘Care in the Community’ showcases some of the startling possibilities that open up when people do decide to get involved in caring for their local heritage. She recounts how the building preservation trust movement has developed and changed since the 1990s. The revolving trust model which was then common has now largely been replaced by the single property trust because full grant aid is more difficult to secure. Single property trusts can become embedded in the local community and can act as a catalyst to celebrate cultural diversity and champion social cohesion. Government and local authorities will be disposing of large chunks of real estate over the next few years. Many of these may not appeal to commercial developers, so a thriving building preservation trust community needs to be ready to take on new challenges. Sarah MacLeod makes the point that BPTs work most effectively where they cooperate with other community bodies – harnessing ‘people power’. She gives some shining examples of how BPTs can galvanise communities into action and support local heritage. A common thread of all the following articles is the value of heritage to communities. Local heritage often has a set of values which is not recognised by current law and policy. The MORI poll carried out for Power of Place (2000) revealed that people valued key elements of their own localities as much as national monuments. They identified strongly with their local streets and buildings – at least as much as with the formal heritage. Ipsos MORI (as it now is) carried out research into perceptions of beauty for CABE in 2010. Beauty is often a rude word in architecture, but the research elicited some interesting responses about value and the built environment. Beauty is often realised through memories and connections and not just the visual senses. A research project in Sheffield, for example, identified Hillsborough Stadium and the road to Meadowhall as having beauty. These perceptions can be very personal: The road to Meadowhall isn’t particularly attractive but it’s not run down either… it’s just factories, which you wouldn’t expect to be aesthetically pleasing. What’s important about that area is the fact it’s where Sheffield’s history is based. There’s one building I always go past, where there are structures either side of the road and a bridge linking the two. You drive through and just think ‘Oh my gosh, this is where my family worked years ago, this is the old steel works, this is amazing’. I don’t think of it as ugly, I think of it as really nice, because it’s a piece of Sheffield we’ll never get back. This broader definition of heritage is reflected in a paper by Maeve Marmion, Stephen Calver and Keith Wilkes (see Further Information) which looked at the meaning and values of heritage in the widest sense. Sense of place is an important component of heritage, but for reasons other than the conventional heritage values. One respondent to the research, describing Wembley Stadium, said: Sport, English history, like football history… I know it [Wembley] has been used for other things… but it’s something a lot of people can relate to… like everyone looks forward to the FA Cup… every year… not just in this country but worldwide. Local heritage is frequently bound up with the idea of personal identity, security and belonging and for many Hotel Monaco (1839), Washington DC was converted to a hotel in 2002 with the aid of the Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program. It was originally the General Post Office and Tariff Building. (Photo: Donovan Rypkema)

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