Designing with the Intangible is a practical toolkit for architects and built environment professionals working across conservation, heritage and the wider historic environment.
The research project brings together the outputs of a RIBA Research Fund project examining how living heritage - including practices, memories, skills, routines and forms of local knowledge - can be recognised, translated into design decisions and carried through the life of a project.
The resources on this toolkit website are designed to support professional judgement rather than prescribe a single method. Their purpose is to help keep living cultural knowledge better connect to and inform the design decisions that shape a place.
The following resources (accessible from the top menu) have been developed to help with the early stages of navigating that translation:
A comprehensive research report capturing the full scope, aims, insights and limitations of the research - underpinned by three focus groups and one peer testing session with architects and the broader built heritage sector
An unofficial 'Living Heritage Overlay' to the RIBA Plan of Work, offering some quick wins for architects and built enviornment professionals across all stages
A series of illustrated 'living heritage case studies' captured from conversations and interviews with practising architects working in the historic environment
A selection of editable PowerPoint slide decks for architects and built heritage professionals to use when engaging clients, communities and contractors on the theme of living heritage for their projects