Chapter 3: Developing the design | Training by Recept Heritage

Heritage Design Risk for Architects0% complete · about 56 min left

3. Developing the design

Page 1 of 4 · Test the options

Project moment

The client wants a larger kitchen and family space. Three credible approaches are being discussed: a compact rear extension; reworking the existing rear range; or a larger extension with more substantial changes to the garden and access.

The heritage question is not “can anything change?” It is how the options differ in what they change and how those effects can be avoided, reduced or justified.

Your task

Identify the strongest option-testing question.

Use the Project Material on the right, then answer below. →Use the Project Material above, then answer below.

For this page

OPTION A — COMPACT REAR EXTENSION
Small extension to the rear of the main house. Limited internal alteration in rear range. Retains exposed timber in its present location.
OPTION B — REWORK THE REAR RANGE
No new extension. Reconfigure the rear range, including changes to partitions, services and finishes around exposed timber and a blocked opening.
OPTION C — LARGER GARDEN-FACING EXTENSION
Larger extension with new garden threshold, revised access and greater change to the relationship between house, garden and route towards coach house.

Earlier project material

Heritage Record

The Old Vicarage, Church Lane, Ashcombe

Stage 3 · Developing the design

This stage’s entries appear here as you save each page. The record so far is below.

Earlier stages

Known: The rear range contains lower ceilings, exposed timber, altered finishes and evidence of at least one altered or blocked opening.
Some early or original internal doors appear to survive.
The main house, garden, boundary wall, gate piers and former coach house have a physical relationship that may be relevant to the developing proposal.
To establish: The development, condition and contribution of the rear range and the fabric likely to be affected by proposed openings, services and internal changes.
The significance and condition of internal doors and other fabric likely to be affected.
The condition of roof-space fabric and existing insulation/service interventions relevant to energy work.
The contribution of the garden and current site relationships to the significance and setting of the principal listed building, where affected by the extension, threshold or access proposal.
The contribution of the rear range, internal doors, altered openings and surviving fabric to the significance of the principal house.
Which elements are likely to be materially affected by each credible option.
Keep under review: How the observed fabric, spaces and site relationships contribute to significance in relation to the proposed work.
Whether emerging design choices affect significant fabric, spaces, setting or relationships.
Whether further survey, opening-up or specialist input is proportionate before a preferred option is selected.
Whether the developing extension, garden threshold, access or landscape proposal affects those relationships.
Decision point: Before selecting a preferred design option, test credible approaches against the fabric, spaces, setting and relationships identified in Chapter 2.

Your initial view

What should be compared before a preferred option is selected?

How each option meets the brief and affects the identified fabric, spaces, relationships and setting, what can be avoided or reduced, and what is still unknown.Which option creates the largest kitchen, because client benefit should be decided first and heritage matters considered once the preferred option is known.Which option looks most contemporary, because contrast is always the safest heritage response.Which option creates the least visible change from Church Lane, because effects at the rear of a listed house do not matter.

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3. Developing the design, page 1 of 4: Test the options

1Project moment

Identify the strongest option-testing question.

3Your initial view

Project moment

Your initial view