To continue raising awareness of the positive health benefits of historic places, The Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC) has helped sponsor the Inaugural Annual Lecture of Built Environment Forum Scotland (BEFS), which covered the topic of ‘Health and the Built Environment’, and was presented by Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer, Sir Harry Burns.
The lecture, which was attended by some 150 people from a huge variety of backgrounds and disciplines, took place at the Hawthornden Lecture Theatre at the National Gallery of Scotland on Monday 24 February, and was filmed by A+DS. It was introduced by John Pelan, Director of BEFS, and by Professor Emeritus Cliff Hague, Chair of BEFS.
BEFS trustee and architect Jocelyn Cunliffe said: ‘This lecture tied in with BEFS’ strapline ‘Putting People at the Heart of Places’, and we are most grateful to Sir Harry for delivering such an inspirational lecture. We hope to develop some of the themes raised by him with him and others in 2015 to improve well-being across communities.’
IHBC Director and trustee of BEFS, Seán O’Reilly, said: ‘It’s great for the IHBC to be so closely associated with such a critical debate, as well as with this historic occasion for BEFS. We’ve long been advocates of the importance of quality places in shaping healthy lives, which lay at the heart of Harry Burns’ exciting talk. Helping support strategic, authoritative and accessible talks like this is absolutely central to how we can move the debate forward. We will of course continue to help raise awareness of the role of the historic environment in the improving the nation’s health and wellbeing, not least as, alongside climate change, this is the critical issue for the 21st century!’
See IHBC’s journal Context on ‘Healthy environments’, issue 119, online at: LINK
Access the Context Archive online at: LINK
The video of BEFS’ Inaugural Annual lecture is at: LINK
Slides of the lecture are available at: LINK
See Jocelyn Cunliffe’s blog on the lecture at: LINK
To find out more about BEFS see: LINK
