A post-war house gone, a contemporary home in its place. Approved without a committee.
The garden elevation, early evening. Photograph of the completed house, relit for this case study.
A tired post-war dwelling on a backland plot inside a Leamington Spa conservation area, taken from the first sketch through to the finished home.
Consent to demolish and rebuild, eight weeks after the application was validated.
The family had an enviable site off one of Leamington's leafier streets: a backland plot, set behind the road and reached by its own long private drive. The house on it was the problem. An undistinguished post-war dwelling, tired, and with little to offer the people who wanted to live there.
They wanted it replaced with a genuinely contemporary, light filled, low energy family home. And they wanted one practice to hold the whole thing, from the first sketch to the keys.
Validated in the January, determined in the February, and occupied the following year. Permission ref 06/0012, Warwick District Council.
Brick from the coach houses and ancillary buildings around it, carrying a lighter storey of timber and zinc, with the ground floor opened to the garden.
The upper storey is carried on a zinc band and cantilevered clear of the glazing below.
Living and dining run together and turn the corner in glass. Restyled for this case study.
A bespoke stair sits at the middle of the plan, lit from a rooflight above. Restyled for this case study.
This is where modern design is hardest to win.
Taking a building down inside a conservation area has to be justified, and whatever replaces it is judged hard. The easy route was a house that looked old. The family wanted a modern one, and so did we.
Discuss your site
Three things had to line up: consent to take the old house down, a modern design the council would actively support rather than merely tolerate, and a backland plot with neighbours close on either side.
A conservation area is precisely where a modern building is most likely to be refused. The designation exists to protect a character that is already there, and the path of least resistance is always a house that imitates its neighbours. That was the option on the table. The family did not want it, and neither did we, so the case had to be made properly rather than avoided.
The site set its own terms as well. This is a backland plot, reached by a long private drive from Kenilworth Road, with houses close on either side, so the new home had to sit comfortably among neighbours who would look onto it. The county ecologist required a bat survey before the application could be determined, not after, and a mature boundary tree had to be kept and protected through the build.
The answer was to argue the design on its merits and to get that argument settled before the application was ever submitted. Through pre-application we worked the external palette with the council's case officer until the house drew its brick from the coach houses and ancillary buildings around it while making no pretence of being old. The conservation area advisory forum raised no objection. Permission followed under delegated powers on 28 February 2006, eight weeks after validation, without ever going to committee. In a conservation area, a contemporary house approved by an officer rather than fought through a committee is the harder and the better outcome.
One practice held the whole project, so the design, the planning case and the building on site never changed hands.
A modern house in a conservation area, approved by an officer rather than fought at committee.
An early heat pump in a one-off house, and an EPC of C72 for a home built in 2007.
Designed, consented and delivered by one practice, with a single point of accountability throughout.
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