Case study / Warwickshire

A house turned upside down, consented at committee.

A contemporary three-bedroom house on a sloping infill plot in a hilltop Warwickshire village, with its bedrooms set into the ground and its living rooms lifted to catch the view south.

The consented house beside the existing cottage, in brick to match it, its first-floor living rooms behind a full-height glazed gable. A visualisation of the consented scheme, which has not been built.

The facts

Contemporary village house architects, Warwickshire.

One new house and one cottage extension in Napton-on-the-Hill, taken through Stratford-on-Avon District Council together: the extension in three months under delegated powers, the house to a committee consent in nine.

The project

Two applications, one brief.

1,695sq ft gross internal

Location: Vicarage Road, Napton-on-the-Hill, Warwickshire
Client: A private client, anonymised by agreement
Consent: Stratford-on-Avon District Council, 18/03425/FUL, granted 8 August 2019
Our scope: Architect and planning agent, RIBA Stages 0 to 3, working drawings, condition discharge, Principal Designer
Status: Consent implemented and extant. The house is not yet built

On the district council's public register: received 29 November 2018, determined at planning committee on 8 August 2019, subject to 11 conditions.

The brief

A cottage, and the slope beside it.

A private client owned a cottage on Vicarage Road and, beside it, an unused strip of sloping ground. He wanted to build a new house on the spare plot and extend the cottage he lived in.

Napton is not an easy place to build. The village has its own neighbourhood plan, a design guide with firm expectations, and a parish council that watches what goes up. A new house on an infill plot has to be good, and argued well.

Accommodation: Detached three-bed house, two storeys, workshop, three parking spaces
Floor area: 157 sqm, 1,695 sqft gross internal: 83.8 at ground, 73.6 at first floor
Second application: A two-storey rear extension to the cottage, consented separately and built
Setting: A sloping infill plot, open to the south

The journey

Nine months, and a change of officer.

Planning journey for The Woods, Napton-on-the-Hill: both applications submitted in November 2018; the cottage extension consented under delegated powers in February 2019; the elevations redrawn to a traditional facade in April 2019; the parking resolved in June 2019 as a parish council objection sent the application to committee; the new house consented at planning committee in August 2019 subject to 11 conditions; the consent since implemented, with the house not yet built

Both applications went in together in November 2018. The extension was straightforward and was consented within three months. The house took the long road: a winter of redesign, a change of case officer partway through, a parish council objection that sent it to committee, and a parking survey to satisfy the highway authority.

What slowed it: A redesign of the external language, then a reset with a new case officer and a fresh site meeting
What decided it: A parish council objection, which moved the decision from delegated powers to the planning committee
What unlocked it: A parking survey on Vicarage Road, and a revised layout answering the highway authority

The dates are the revision dates on our own issued drawings: the facade in April 2019, the parking in June, the consent in August.

The scheme

The idea is in the section.

The plot slopes, and it looks south over open countryside. So the house was turned upside down: bedrooms in the solid, thermally heavy base at ground level, living rooms lifted to the first floor behind a full-height glazed gable, with the garden a step away at that level.

The section

Bedrooms low, living lifted.

Read it from the slope up. The ground floor is tucked into the bank, and the living space sits above it, open to the light and the view through the tall gable. It is an unusual way round for a house, and it is the reason this one works.

The site section. Zoom for the cut ground and the original site line.

The front elevation

A contemporary gable, in Napton's brick.

The gable is the face of the house: a tall glazed opening under a steep pitch, with a lower entrance link running down beside it, all in brick laid to match the cottage next door and a plinth course at the base.

The front elevation. Materials fixed by planning condition.

The plot

An infill strip, off Vicarage Road.

The new house takes the western part of a wedge-shaped plot, with the client's retained cottage to the east, a new access off Vicarage Road, and the mature trees along the boundaries kept.

The consented site layout. Zoom for the boundary and the retained trees.

Ground floor

Three bedrooms, in the ground.

The ground floor holds the three bedrooms with their bathrooms, a utility and a workshop, gathered around the entrance and stair, with the parking and the electric vehicle point in front.

Ground floor, 83.8 sqm. Drawn at the same scale as the first floor.

First floor

One room for living, facing south.

Up a level the whole floor opens out: kitchen, dining and living together, turned to the south and the view, with an exit into the garden at that level because the ground rises behind.

First floor, 73.6 sqm, drawn at the same scale as the ground floor.

The site

A consent in hand, and a plot still open.

Photographed at the start of the project in February 2018, when the design's terms were set. The permission was implemented, so it stands; the house has not been built.

The street

A village lane that falls with the hill.

Vicarage Road drops away through the village, and the plot sits on the high side of it. The new house is drawn in the street's own material: the red brick of the cottage pair on the right.

Vicarage Road, February 2018. The plot is beyond the cottage pair.

Vicarage Road, Napton-on-the-Hill, in February 2018, falling downhill beneath a dark yew, with the red brick cottage pair and a parked car on the right, the plot's lattice-brick wall just beyond, and a white cottage further down the lane

The plot

An infill strip, behind its wall.

The plot from the road at the start of the project: an overgrown garden strip rising between the bungalow and the cottage pair, behind its lattice-brick wall. This is the ground the drawings answer.

The plot from Vicarage Road, February 2018.

The plot at The Woods, Napton-on-the-Hill, photographed from Vicarage Road in February 2018: an overgrown garden strip rising behind a red lattice-brick boundary wall with an iron gate and a skip at its entrance, a white bungalow gable to the left and the flank of the brick cottage pair to the right

From the plot

Standing above the street.

From inside the plot the ground is already well above the road: the slope the section answers. The house sets its bedrooms into this bank and lifts the living floor to the top of it, where the ground opens to the view.

Looking back over the cottage pair from the plot, February 2018.

Looking back across the site at The Woods, Napton-on-the-Hill in February 2018: the rendered flank and rear of the red brick cottage pair with an old greenhouse lean-to, cleared scrub in the foreground, and the ground dropping to the lattice-brick wall and parked cars on Vicarage Road beyond

The view

The reason the living rooms are upstairs.

From the top of the plot the ground falls away south over open countryside. That long view is what the section chases: bedrooms set into the bank, the living space lifted a storey above it.

Looking south from the site, February 2018.

The view south from the site at The Woods, Napton-on-the-Hill in February 2018: pasture falling away from the hilltop to a wide misty vale of fields, hedgerow trees and the village edge below

The challenge

Change the face, keep the house.

The officer wanted a different house.

The design that satisfied the officer was drifting steadily away from the house that actually worked. The task was to hold the substance while changing the face, and to keep holding it through a change of officer.

Discuss your plot

The glazed gable of the consented house at The Woods, Napton-on-the-Hill, in red brick with a full-height gable window under a steep pitched roof. A visualisation of the consented scheme.

Through the winter of 2018 we reworked the elevations towards something the authority would accept. Then the case officer changed partway through, the scheme had to be reset with a new officer and a fresh site meeting, and the parish council objected, which took the decision away from officers and sent it to the planning committee.

The full story

The new house was the hard one. Its starting point was the site: a plot that slopes and looks south over open countryside. So the house was turned upside down, with the bedrooms set into the thermally heavy base and the living rooms lifted to the first floor behind a full-height glazed gable. The section did real work. Thermal mass below, cross-ventilation between the north and south openings, deep eaves for summer shade, a house meant to stay comfortable without leaning on mechanical cooling.

The external design was another matter. Through the winter we reworked the elevations to the authority's direction, moving them steadily towards something more traditional; our own drawings carry the revision note "Traditional facade finish" against 8 April 2019. Then the case officer changed, and three months in we were in effect starting the design conversation again with a new officer and a fresh site meeting. A director stepped in to keep the scheme's quality on the table with the authority while that reset happened.

The parish council then objected, which meant the application would be decided by the planning committee rather than by an officer under delegated powers, and the committee would not look at it until a question about parking on Vicarage Road had been answered. A transport consultant's parking survey answered it, the drawings were revised again in June, and three of the eleven conditions on the consent deal with parking and access. The house was consented at committee on 8 August 2019, about nine months after it was submitted, with the section, and everything the section does, intact.

What we did

Two applications, run together.

Rickett Architects was the architect and the planning agent on both applications, wrote the supporting statements, coordinated the consultants and represented the scheme at committee, then stayed on for the working drawings and the conditions.

The planning case

Held through a difficult nine months.

Design: Elevations redrawn to a traditional facade in April 2019, with the section unchanged
Highways: A transport consultant's parking survey on Vicarage Road, and the drawings revised in June 2019
Evidence: A Design and Access Statement and a Heritage Statement, both written by us
Outcome: Full permission, 18/03425/FUL, at planning committee

Three of the eleven conditions deal with parking and access, which is where the case was fought.

The second application

The extension, on the simpler route.

Application: A two-storey rear extension to the existing cottage, with changes to the fenestration
Route: Determined under delegated powers, without going to committee
Reference: 18/03445/FUL, received 22 November 2018 and granted 4 February 2019
Status: Built

Two permissions from one brief, running in parallel through the same authority.

The house

A face the village recognises.

Walls and roof: Brick, matching the neighbouring cottage, under a pitched tiled roof
The move: A full-height glazed gable framing the view south from the first-floor living space
Arrangement: Bedrooms in the ground floor, living above, with the garden reached at first-floor level
Environmental: Thermal mass, cross-ventilation and shading eaves, designed to work without mechanical cooling

The external language changed. The section, and everything it does, did not.