Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the cross-fertilisation process between the concept ofresilience and building conservation. The authors discuss how the conservation field can address new issuesposed by climate change and whether the concept of resilience plays a role within the framework ofsustainable building conservation.Design/methodology/approach – Starting from the use of resilience as a “travelling concept”, differentinterpretations of the term emerging from different fields are compared and interrelated in order tounderstand how this concept can impact future research in building conservation.Findings – In addition to summarising recent developments in conservation theory with a special focus onhow sustainability has influenced the field, this work also suggests some lines of research where resiliencecould foster interdisciplinary approaches to building conservation and presents some controversial outcomes.Originality/value – The paper raises a discussion on how the concept of resilience could renew the field ofbuilding conservation, helping contemporary society to address the challenges of climate change.