Sustainable Archaeology

[historic building]

Hello

One of my lovely districts has asked me to contribute to an SPD on Sustainability. Specifically they would like me to write about sustainable archaeology the archaeology is pretty well all in the urban areas of the district. I am thinking along the lines of reusing existing piles/foundations or drilling new piles through existing areas of damage; basing design on existing ground impacts - no great expansion of impacts. Essentially taking these points as first principles and then involving archaeologists early in the design phase to explore preservation and reuse of buildings on site as early as possible in the design stages. Of course I only have a few days in which to think about this so if anyone has any ideas it would be greatly appreciated. If anyone knows of any existing policy material on sustainable archaeology I would appreciate that even more.

Thanks

HB.

[drpeterwardle]

A few years ago EH publish a document sustaining the historic environment a discussion document.

This must be your starting point

Peter

[troll]

Incorporate archaeology into new-builds where possible-making our heritage visible to local people enhancing perceptions of value and identity.Where archaeology is destroyed through excavation (contrary to ppg/IFA)in urban areas-place info boards to achieve point one above.Involve the local public throughout and encourage developers to see the sustainable benefits of this....

Sorry this sound disjointed etc..am off for a job interview.

..knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity..(imam ghazali,ayyuhal-walad)

[historic building]

Thanks Troll, I have a decent public display element included in the discussion of the archaeology policies for this district that do enable me to get good things done. It cannot hurt inserting other stuff into SPD also.

Dr Wardle I take it you mean 'Sustaining the Historic Environment' or similar. Thanks for the reminder.

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated

Thanks you two

HB

[kevin wooldridge]

You might also like to look at the publications resulting from the Museum of London PARIS (Preservation of Achaeological Remains in Situ) conferences.

I seem to remember that there was a paper at the first conference on the reuse of foundations. I also recall an engineer saying that this was sometimes difficult because engineers could never assume a foundation constructed for one building was entirely suitable for another building.

[beamo]

If there is adequate information on the nature of the existing piles then there is some potential for re-use. An alternative methodology is to drill out the pile and re-use the pile location.


There is a (draft) EH guidance note on piling and archaeology, although I don't know how widely available it is. EH are also running a partnership project with IFA and CIRIA (Construction Industry Research and Information Association) to produce good practice guidance - MOLAS are involved in this and may have further information.


Beamo

[historic building]

I have been talking to the buildings control people about the reuse of piles issue and the extent of information that would be needed. Depending on whether the buildings inspection is outsourced or not there may actually be decent records in some council archives. The main issue seems to be the space for keeping files...