ABSTRACT
Previous chapters have examined the nature and extent of, and processes shaping, changes in a variety of conserved areas, and attention can now be turned to a closer study of the impacts of change in historical townscapes. Several key questions arise. First, how is change accommodated? Secondly, what architectural and urban design strategies are employed by architects, developers and planners? Thirdly, is such change ‘managed’? Given the phrasing of UK law and policy, it would be expected that a principal aim of any policy of ‘management’ in historical areas should be to ensure that new buildings do not look ‘out of place’. This expectation draws upon the evident importance placed upon the façade, above virtually any other aspect of historic structure or plan, in the UK ‘townscape’ tradition of planning in the post-war period, as has been evident in some of the examples already cited. This chapter will thus concentrate on some of the design trends which have been developed in response to growing concerns for conservation and contextualism, some (but not all) of which have been raised in examples discussed in the previous two chapters.
