Storytelling and significance: decision-making in the historic environment
- Katie Wray
- Sep 13, 2024
- 3 min read
Narrating the tale of historic buildings to show their significance, assess their impact, and justify their importance
Stories and pictures
Everybody loves a good story. It might be about adventure or love, discovery or disaster – the range of subjects is endless. Any creative writing course will tell you that place, location and detail are key to how well a story can entertain and captivate a reader. The richer the world as created on the page, the more immersive and engaging the narrative.
Context can give the viewer valuable clues to interpreting the piece. Visual art – be it painting, sculpture, or work in other media – offers more of an up-front sensory hit. It tells a tale about the conditions in which it was created. Even the most unique and idiosyncratic work reflects something of its time.
Historic buildings and places can be a potent combination of art and storytelling. They are encountered aesthetically: as compositions, materials and textures, as well as sounds and smells. Many old places are simply beautiful. They can also be read like a story – they can help to show about how a place developed over time. They can hold evidence of how societies, economies, and technologies have developed; bear the scars of conflict and cultural upheaval. They can also contain the countless individual narratives of the people who went there before us. Did the Romans camp in that field? Perhaps your nan was born above that shop!
Each place resonates with someone in a different way and on a different level. Some are of such importance to a nation or even the world that they become legally protected. In heritage practice that importance is referred to as “significance”. Significance adds hugely to how a place can be appreciated and is crucial to responding appropriately in terms of new design and development.
New tales
Sometimes difficult decisions need to be made. Change often involves the loss of valuable historic fabric, but can allow new stories and works of art to be created. Assessing the potential impact of a change is a challenge: it involves balancing the perceived significance of what is being lost with the uncertain promise of what might come in its place.
For example, new housing may be required to allow a town to adapt to changing demographic needs. The public benefit of that housing must be weighed against the loss or change required to build it. Mitigation measures including good design, and perhaps even simply publishing the history of the site, can also play a part.
Without a compelling story which considers a site from its past to its future, it is extremely difficult to make planning decisions. This involves crafting another kind of story: a narrative about change itself. In many situations a proposed development has been well considered and does have a reasonable justification, but that story may not have been told convincingly enough.
Top tips
A clear approach to narrative is therefore essential in bringing forward any development proposal which will affect the historic environment. This can be summed up in the following steps.
1. Creating your statement of significance
What is the history of the place? How did it begin? How has it developed over time? What important events have happened there?
What is it now? What are its aesthetic qualities, or downsides? In what way is it important, and to whom?
2. Assessing your impact and justification
What is the story of the proposed development? Who would benefit from the scheme, and how?
How has the design been developed? How has the significance of the site been acknowledged and protected, where appropriate? What would be lost, and how would that loss affect the heritage significance of the place?
Ultimately the local planning authority will make this assessment themselves but presenting a compelling version will help them come to the same conclusion and grant consent for the scheme.
You may need help from specialists in answering these questions and developing a compelling set of stories. The Delivery Associates Network is here to help: we can provide advice at various stages along the way. You can request our support by emailing us at DeliveryAssociatesNetwork@Arup.com.
Otherwise get your quills at the ready and start writing that story!
Katie Wray is a Director in Deloitte’s Real Estate team. She works on major urban regeneration projects and leads Deloitte’s heritage team working a range of scales and types of heritage. She is based in Manchester and sits on Historic England’s Historic Places Panel.
Thomas Pearson leads Arup’s Heritage & Conservation Architecture team. He has delivered design and conservation projects for some of the country’s finest historic buildings, and holds heritage advisory roles for the Church of England, the Twentieth Century Society and the Georgian Group.
If you have any questions on this topic, or would like support, please contact your Delivery Associate, or email DeliveryAssociatesNetwork@Arup.com
