Help test our new tool to support decision making for historic places

How can we put the historic environment at the heart of place-based conversations and decision making?

Senior Environmental Assessment and Advice Officer Ginny Sharp introduces a new resource for understanding how the historic environment affects our daily lives, and how it can help our places be better.

“The historic environment is part of our everyday lives. It provides character to our landscapes, strengthens and enhances our local communities, and helps to forge a sense of place.” Our Past, Our Future - The Strategy for Scotland's Historic Environment

We're excited to be developing the Your Historic Place lens, designed to be used with the Place Standard Tool.

Our aim is to spark and support conversations which explore the connections between people, place, and our historic environment.

What is the Place Standard Tool?

As Historic Environment Scotland’s Place Standard Lead, I’ve seen the Place Standard tool go from strength to strength since it was launched in 2015.

It is a framework to help structure conversations about place.

It allows people to think about physical elements like buildings, spaces, or transport links; and the social aspects - for example whether people feel they have a say in decision making. The tool provides prompts for discussion, helping you to consider all the elements of a place in a methodical way: from assets to areas where it could improve.

It’s now used widely across Scotland and beyond. It has been applied in 14 countries and recognised, promoted and applied by the World Health Organization , European Healthy Cities Network and EuroHealthNet .

But it was only when Place Standard tool lenses focusing on supporting conversations about Climate Change and Air Quality were successfully launched that we realised there was a fantastic opportunity for the historic environment here too.

Why a lens for the historic environment?

It might be worth caveating that the historic environment is an all-encompassing term. At HES we consider it as the evidence of past human activity.

That could take the form of a stone circle, medieval castle or townscape. It might be a factory or a mill. It could also be an artefact or archive material like photographs, drawings, manuscripts or maps.

But it's also central to our everyday lives and helps shape our identity. The historic environment connects people with place, with traditions, stories and memories linked to those places. It’s part of our homes, workplaces, meeting places, play spaces and much more.

We know that for many people, a castle or church is more obviously 'historic' than some of those other everyday aspects.

That's why understanding how the historic environment shapes a place and the way it is used or experienced is vital to developing an understanding of the place itself. It can also help us to make better decisions about the places where we live, work, meet, visit and play.

It can be difficult to draw out what we value about a place, and why.

The Historic Place lens will help people to think about the historic aspects of their area’s buildings, places, and spaces. How do the historic elements of the area shape the place it is today? And how can they help it be a successful place for the future?

What kind of projects can the lens be used for?

The Place Standard Tool and its lenses are often used in the context of placemaking projects, community planning and spatial planning. But there are no limitations to where the lens could be used, and we welcome innovative approaches. If you think it could be useful, in whatever context, then we encourage you to give it a go and then let us know what you thought.

Give it a try!

A pilot version of the lens is currently available to try.

This will run for 6-9 months. We’re inviting those involved in place-making projects to try it out and we’ll use feedback to refine the final version.

We’d love you to be part of this!

• You can read a bit more about it on our website.
• You can download a PDF version of it.
• And once you've done that, you can tell us what you thought by filling out a short online survey.

If you know people or projects that could find it useful, please do help us to spread the word by sharing the lens and the survey.

Help to put the historic at the heart of our places, because #HeritageMatters.