Facilities management and built environment conservation: competences and issues

Most building conservation practitioners perceive projects as finishing upon handover of the conserved building to the client, without necessarily giving much thought to the continuing management of the heritage asset for the rest of its lifetime. Since the key objective of conservation is to prolong the life of historic assets by giving them a sustainable new use, this narrow focus is unfortunate. Equally facilities managers are often constrained by the particular features of historic buildings and the regulatory environment in which they must function. This paper explores the competences which are needed by those responsible for the conservation and management of historic buildings and describes work done to establish an agreed framework of educational support for conservation practitioners to raise their competence level. Features of the framework have potential benefits for facilities managers. Five educational support units, based on the ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) training and education guidelines have been converted, under the leadership of Heriot-Watt University, into an on-line format suitable for use by the practitioner at his or her desk. The paper describes the rationale behind the competence framework, gives a brief outline of the on-line content and its philosophy, and suggests how the principles embodied could be adopted by facilities managers in their work within the historic environment. It concludes that, while facilities managers are unlikely to participate in any of the built environment conservation accreditation schemes, those responsible for historic buildings need to be aware of the issues raised.