Aimée L Felton 2012

90 Chapter Nine Conclusion Nine•One Chapter Nine - Conclusion NINE Within both the profession and society there has been a critical shift in focus from the preservation of buildings as physical entities valued as intrinsic worth to the perception of what the historic buildings could become with careful and considered managed change.The current primary focus of existing empirical research undertaken in this sector of conservation has focused on heritage-focused organisations with little research comparing the objectives and methodologies undertaken by non-heritage focused organisations. Essential to the maintenance of historic buildings, no matter what discipline or business sector the owner, is the anticipation of a working life of the building with a relevant present life and an appropriate forecasted one. All the organisations proved that comprehensive knowledge of the cultural significance isn’t essential in itself to provide the correct result. An element of this knowledge is required but with it, a critical framework balancing organisational priorities and legal obligations to find an appropriate, if not the inevitable conclusions (Earl, J. 2003:p145). A primary research aim of analysis into the existing legal system within the UK identified the lack of statutory duty of care to historic building owners. However, none of the case study organisations identified duty of care, or an embedded sense of duty towards the historic buildings as a driver for maintenance.Whilst the research failed to identify this, it did demonstrate the dominant importance of legislation to the organisations and the initial need to satisfy obligation before calculating the impact upon cultural significance and vulnerable fabric. From this outcome it could be presumed that a promotion of maintenance if not duty of care within legislation, could improve the priority of maintenance within non-heritage organisations. However, due to the small scale of the research, no firm conclusions can be drawn in gauging opinion and Research conclusions Aimee Felton