Historic buildings need a careful approach and their own consents. I am an ARB-registered architect and I work on listed buildings, in conservation areas, and in protected landscapes such as a National Landscape (formerly an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), balancing what owners want to do with what the building and its setting can take.
My heritage work runs from a sensitive extension to a listed home, through the conversion and change of use of listed and historic buildings, to putting right alterations that were carried out without the right consent. I can prepare the listed building consent and any planning application a proposal needs, and set out the case for the conservation officer.
What I cover
- Listed building consent for Grade I, II* and Grade II buildings, for works inside and out.
- Extensions, alterations and loft conversions to listed homes, designed to work with the historic building rather than copy it.
- Change of use and conversion of listed and historic buildings, including subdividing a property or bringing a redundant building back into use as homes or as a mixed-use scheme.
- Sensitive energy and services upgrades to listed buildings, such as air source heat pumps, replacement bunded oil tanks and conservation-grade secondary glazing, sited and detailed to protect the historic character.
- Work in conservation areas, including conservation area consent where it applies.
- Work in designated and protected landscapes, including a National Landscape.
- Full planning applications alongside listed building consent, where a proposal needs both.
- Retrospective planning and listed building consent to regularise unauthorised alterations to listed buildings, in conservation areas or in a National Landscape, including lawful development certificate (LDC) applications.
- Projects affected by an Article 4 direction, where normal permitted development rights have been withdrawn.
- Heritage statements and heritage impact assessments to support applications.
- Watercolour artist impressions to show how a proposal will look in its setting.
How I approach it
Heritage work starts with understanding the significance of the building: what matters about it, and why. I use that to shape a design that respects the historic fabric and its setting, and to explain the proposal clearly to the conservation officer.
Sometimes the right answer is to stay close to the existing building, using local materials and detailing drawn from the listed fabric and the surrounding area. Sometimes it is a confident, contemporary addition that sits honestly alongside the older building rather than imitating it. I judge each case on the building in front of me.
Where new services are needed (heating, glazing, an energy upgrade), I site and detail them so they protect the character of the building, for example screening a heat pump from public view or aligning new glazing bars with the existing windows.
I often work alongside a planning consultant on the heritage research and the submission, and I engage early and openly with the conservation and listed building officers so points are worked through before an application is decided. Where it helps, I produce watercolour artist impressions so an owner and the officers can see how a proposal will look in its setting.
This is a starting outline. I expand each project with the detail relevant to the building and its listing.
Examples of my heritage work
- A rear extension and loft family room for a Grade II listed Arts and Crafts house (one of only two surviving houses by Arthur H. Mackmurdo, a founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement) in a London conservation area, with a contemporary curved roof chosen for architectural honesty rather than pastiche, followed by a separate consent for a garage to the same house. (See my One Oak project.)
- Earlier in my career, I reworked a refused scheme for a listed former public building in Scotland into a mixed-use conversion of flats with ground-floor shops, which then gained both listed building and full planning consent.
- A sensitive energy and services upgrade to a Grade II former post office cottage in a conservation area: an air source heat pump, a replacement bunded oil tank and conservation-grade secondary glazing, all sited and detailed to stay discreet.
- Preparing the drawings to bring a redundant rural building back into use as a home through a change of use, working alongside a planning consultant on the application.
- Regularising unauthorised alterations to a listed building through a lawful development certificate (LDC) and retrospective listed building consent.