Getting planning permission for a one off home in the open countryside or greenbelt – known as Paragraph 84e, is something we get involved in quite a lot.
One of our early projects in 2012 for Paul Testa Architecture, was to achieve planning permission for The Burrows on the Rotherham / Barnsley border.
This was the first approval in South Yorkshire using this policy and one of the earliest in the country.
These projects offer the clients an opportunity to build a home for themselves when they, otherwise, might struggle to find a suitable site.
To be a success, a Paragraph 84e home needs three key ingredients; a great site, an engaged client and the right design team.
It’s a big responsibility
Designing a Paragraph 84e home carries with it a great deal of responsibility towards the site and its context.
The very nature of this very specific bit of planning policy means that we’re designing a home usually in a sensitive location that would, otherwise, not have a building on it.
The site may or may not be unspoilt, but we and the client are still creating significant change to the landscape.
Our responsibility to the client is also significant. Homes using Paragraph 84e require a huge amount of design work and with it carries a large architectural and consultant bill, so the need to develop a home that’s specific and unique to the client feels especially acute.
It invites constructive tension
We were discussing in the studio recently that between these two responsibilities there can be a great deal of tension.
The tension of designing appropriately for a unique site and a unique client can, in the most successful projects, lead to the very best architecture that delights the client as much as it fits the site.
It can also lead to situations where the design responsibility for the site can to diverge from the clients’ wants or tastes.
Some of the best architecture can be created under this policy, but it needs a client willing to be challenged by the team and their site and also for them to challenge the team and have the required ambition for the site.
Sometimes the client isn’t necessarily prepared for this constructive tension that needs to be navigated or for how iterative the design process will be.
Clarifying our process
We’re confident we’re clear about the process, but we’ve had a couple of projects recently where the client has found this tension too much of a challenge compared to how they’d expected the process to proceed. The image above is of one such project that didn’t quite make it to the local planners, but was tantalisingly close.
We’re working on how we can make the start of these brilliant projects feel even easier and to make the design and planning process as exciting as possible.
While it’s true that these demanding projects can take up to 5 years + to receive a decision, the result can be worth every moment of the journey.
Do you have a tricky site you’d love to build on?
If you have a site in the Greenbelt or countryside and you’d like to know if it’s possible to get planning approval get in touch.