Brookland

Client: Private

Architect: Tiziana Mori (RIBA stage 2)                          
Project value: £ TBC

 

Planning stage:

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1.1   Site Location and History

 

 The application site is an undeveloped strip of land located between the former Pepperland Nursery and Lime Tree Farm on the south side of Straight Lane (A259) in the rural area.

The existing site presents some existing trees along the edge with the Pepperland Nurseries land, one on the North East corner dominant on Straight Lane, two trees in the middle of the North/East side towards the Lime tree farm and one at the back of the site. All the existing trees will be retained. The whole land is covered in shrubbery throughout the area.

The access to the land is from Straight Lane (A259).

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1.2   Site Analysis: opportunities and constraints

 

 The site is located outside the settlement boundary and presents a narrow shape developing North to South with a site depth of approximately 27 m. It is a land with shrubs throughout the area.

On the West of the site sits the Pepperland Nurseries land which was a fruits farm back in time and it has recently received planning approval to develop 8 residential houses.

On the East side sits the Lime tree farm with a shed at the back of the land and accessible through a clay court and surrounded by green land.

The proposed new project is intended to have a sustainable design approach by using renewable energy resources such as solar panels, the improvement of the landscape by the addition of new trees throughout the site  (see image 02, red circles) and the creation of wildlife meadow pockets.

The new side road, 3m wide, will follow the Hierarchy of having a different pavement treatment from the main road (Straight Lane) . As per diagram (image 02) the new driveway would have a section of gravel and the area in front of the semidetached houses would be a block paved driveway.

The proposed dwellings have a generous back garden of the same width of the houses footprint and a depth of 10m. Plot 3 has a garden depth of 10m in the centre line of the garden.

 

2.1   Design and visual amenity

 

 The proposed development would be in the form of a front detached house, barn style, and 1 x pair of semi-detached dwellings at the back of the site, accessible from Straight Lane via a new vehicular access road.

To keep an informal rural street scene, the front detached house is composed from a single storey barn style block towards the main road to create a discreet visible impact from Straight Lane and a back two storey block for the bedrooms area.

Both the detached and semidetached houses are 4 bedrooms houses with garage. The semidetached have a single garage space whereas the detached house a double garage space.

There will be  visitor car spaces in front of the detached house defined by  grass guard impermeable paving  to allow the grass and flowers to grow through the area.

The detached house is composed of a single storey block  with living room, kitchen, toilet and laundry and a two storey blocks with 2 bedrooms and a central bathroom on each floor. The garden is wrapping around on three sides with access from the living room area and the two bedrooms at the ground floor.

The semidetached houses are a two storey building with living room, kitchen, toilet at the ground floor and the 4 bedrooms with bathrooms on the first floor. The bedroom facing South benefit of a long balcony towards the private garden.

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2.2   Elevations and Treatment

 

The sustainable approach is applied to the proposed project by the use of local materials both for sustainability and reduce of carbon consumption in the construction process and to refer to the quality of local architecture.

The detached house and semidetached houses are treated with different materials to create variety and emphasize the difference in volumes.

The detached house, as it is inspired from the rural countryside barns, presents a timber cladding throughout the volume and the timber volume is broken by wide full height door windows which interrupt the solidity of the building.

 

The semidetached houses are presenting the central core of the building with a ragstone wall typical of the Kent area and external pitched roof blocks in clay tiles, a materials used on many building in the surroundings.

The contrast of the red clay tiles with the light grey ragstone will play a good role in defining the different volumes of this building.