Contemporary designed home in Colchester allowed at appeal

We are delighted that our proposed design for a contemporary home in rural Essex has been allowed by a Planning Inspector, following a planning appeal.The proposed scheme sought to replace a tired 20th Century dwelling with a modern contemporary designed home.

The proposed design sought a low-profile building that would assimilate into the landscape, with the mass broken down by a modulated arrangement of glazed elements that responds positively to the topography of the site.  

Colchester Borough Council had refused the planning application for a replacement dwelling on the basis that they felt that the proposed contemporary design and its scale was inappropriate within a rural context, together with its impact on surrounding trees and vegetation and the location of the development within a designated employment zone.     

Through the planning process it was successfully demonstrated that there were no trees or vegetation within close proximity to the proposed building and it was highlighted that Council was planning to remove the employment designation through its emerging local plan, which had reached an advanced stage in the plan-making process. The outstanding issue remained the design approach, together with the bulk and mass.The Planning Inspector accepted the arguments put forward that in this particular location there was no particular architectural reference points or strong character. The Planning Inspector also accepted that the site sat within its own context and was visually self-contain, and as such, agreed that a modernist design approach was appropriate within this context and that the Council had been overly dictatorial in its design preference for the site.

Whilst the replacement dwelling was proposed to be larger than the existing dwelling, the Planning Inspector accepted that the fallback position, that is to extend the existing building through permitted development rights, would result in a large, bulkier, sprawling and undesirable building. By contrast, the Planning Inspector acknowledged that the individually designed building was of a very high-quality that would sit comfortably within its setting.

If you are seeking to replace an existing building with a new dwelling or seeking to develop a bespoke self-build dwelling, please contact one of our experienced architects or planning consultants via mail@adpltd.co.uk to discuss your project further.

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