Intangible heritage and design in historic contexts
AHRC Innovation Scholars Secondment (January 2024 – January 2026)
More detailsAbout our research
The Built Heritage research group advances interdisciplinary research on the material, cultural and lived dimensions of heritage across diverse contexts. We investigate how places are conserved, adapted and reimagined through their fabric, uses and meanings.
Heritage is approached not as static remains, but as a dynamic and future-oriented practice shaped by community voices, craft traditions, intangible practices and creative reinterpretation.
We draw on a wide range of methods – from ethnographic, archival and community-led research to analytical and immersive digital technologies. A central focus is on embodied and sensory experience, recognising how heritage is encountered, remembered, and transformed through lived practice. These approaches create new opportunities for creative collaboration and co-creation with communities, policymakers and industry partners.
Our research positions heritage as a critical resource for shaping inclusive futures, informing sustainable practice and advancing professionalism within industry. The group aims to lead debate and experimentation, setting new directions for heritage theory, policy and practice.
Our research themes
Our research activities and PhD supervisory expertise cover the following areas:
- Conservation theory and practice.
- Urban heritage and historic environments.
- Embodied, sensory and lived experience.
- Craft, skills, expertise and material cultures.
- Histories and futures of the professions and professionalism.
- Continuity, contextualism, and reinterpretation.
- Intangible, immaterial and ephemeral heritage.
- Community engagement and co-creation.
- Heritage policy, governance and placemaking.
- Digital, immersive and experimental methodologies.
- Heritage futures.
