Dearbhail Keating

Dearbhail is a Conservation Architect and Director at John Coward Architects and is involved in projects from their earliest stages through to completion. She works closely with domestic clients on listed buildings, heritage assets, and properties within conservation areas, while her commercial work largely focuses on historic and ecclesiastical buildings. She generally leads the project and remains the principal client contact, drawing on architects and technologists within the practice for additional design, drawing and specification support.

Her particular expertise is in historic buildings. She is experienced in ecclesiastical work and the faculty system, as well as leading domestic and other projects through all RIBA stages. Her method is anchored in understanding a building’s significance before deciding how to repair, adapt, or alter it. That includes understanding defects, building physics and methods of decay so that repair specifications respond to how the building actually works.

Dearbhail studied architecture at Leeds School of Architecture and first worked with John Coward Architects during her Part 1 placement in 2007–08. She later returned to the practice to complete the professional experience leading to qualification as an architect. Her interest in historic buildings was already well established during her studies. She also volunteered with the National Trust at Beningbrough Hall, where researching the building strengthened her interest in how buildings develop over time and what their physical fabric can tell us about the past.

In 2014, she undertook the SPAB Lethaby Scholarship, spending nine months travelling in the UK and abroad and learning practical building conservation directly from craftspeople and specialists. Her experience ranged from re-leading roofs at Chatsworth to stone carving at Glasgow Cathedral. In addition to giving her first-hand understanding of traditional construction and repair, the scholarship helped her build a network of conservation specialists she continues to draw on in her professional work.

Dearbhail is particularly interested in the point where historic buildings and contemporary needs meet. She believes conservation should allow sensitive change where it helps a building remain useful and viable, provided that its significance is properly understood and protected. That can include upgrading accessibility, establishing new uses, and responding to changing expectations around energy and sustainability without unnecessarily sacrificing historic character or fabric.

She values the long-term relationships she builds with clients, particularly on domestic projects, and the satisfaction of seeing a building used once the work is complete. In conservation work, success can be much less visible. A technically complex repair may leave little obvious trace, but can secure a building that has already stood for centuries for future generations.