A lifetime of championing conservation: Sir Donald Insall awarded AYA Lifetime Achievement

Sir Donald Insall has been awarded the AYA Lifetime Achievement award by Building Design for his pioneering work in conservation architecture and planning.   

At the Architect of the Year Awards ceremony last night, Sir Donald Insall was presented with the lifetime achievement award for his pioneering work.  

Following his studies and becoming a SPAB Lethaby scholar, Donald established our practice in 1958.  He was later described as “one of the leading conservation architects of his generation” in Queen Elizabeth’s Birthday Honours List 2010.  

Donald has long argued that change is inevitable. Whilst respecting the value of historic fabric is vital, adaptation is key to ensure that a building or place can continue to be in the future.  

His trailblazing report, ‘Chester: A Study in Conservation’, was published in 1968 and encouraged recognition that ‘change and redevelopment in any city are continuous’. The report enabled Chester to become the first city to espouse the principles of conservation and the first to employ a Conservation Officer. We continue to act as stewards of heritage in Chester today, for example helping to implement a heritage action zone at the historic Rows. 

The important thing is that it is conservation we are all after, not preservation. We’re no longer pickling things always as they were, because buildings are alive.

Sir Donald Insall