Part of the IHBC Annual School 2025 Pre-conference CPD Series #IHBCShrewsbury2025

Caitlin DeSilvey and Imogen Wood will explain the theory and application of the concept of adaptive release in the context of historic buildings. This will include exploring how adaptive release can help address the challenge of inevitable change and potential loss for some buildings, particularly those vulnerable to external forces (such as coastal process or extreme weathering) which are intensified by climate change.

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About the speakers:

Caitlin DeSilvey is Professor of Cultural Geography at the University of Exeter’s Cornwall campus. Her research into the cultural significance of material and ecological change has involved extensive collaboration with archaeologists, conservation architects, ecologists, heritage practitioners and others, and has informed new approaches in heritage practice, focused on accommodating process rather than securing preservation. Her monograph, Curated Decay: Heritage Beyond Saving (UMP 2017), received the 2018 Historic Preservation Book Prize. From 2020-2022 she led the Landscape Futures and the Challenge of Change project in collaboration with the National Trust, Historic England and Natural England. Her advisory roles include membership of the National Trust Historic Environment Advisory Group, the Bord Ertach Kernow Change Working Group and the Scientific Group for the EU Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage and Global Change/Alliance for Research of Cultural Heritage in Europe (JPICH/ARCHE)

Imogen Wood MSc FLI CIfA IHBC is a senior conservation practitioner at the National Trust, balancing nature, history, design and access in her work, which has focused on conservation philosophy that cross-cuts devolved regulatory approaches and accounts for services and public benefit of the National Trust’s charitable purpose, conservation management approaches and their application across landscapes and different asset types, and planning and development work that seeks sustainable approaches to accessible rural estate management. Previous work for Historic England, Natural England and private consultancy has been centred around conservation management approaches and project planning for heritage at risk, including parks and gardens, historic buildings and archaeological features. Imogen has worked internationally on the climate crisis, attending COP and other overseas events on climate and heritage, and developing and speaking about methods for climate change adaptation approaches for the historic environment.