Valley View Farm, Batcombe
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1.0 Heading Lorem Valley View Farm, Batcombe Tempus amet curabitur quisque tempus id, dolor sit est curabitur laoreet nullam, aliqua lacus wisi ultrices nullam, imperdiet curabitur eget, in purus New Country House Valley View Farm, Batcombe | New Country House | January 2021 DESIGN AND ACCESS STATEMENT, 20 JANUARY 20211 CONTENTS SECTION 1 - INTRODUCTION SECTION 4 - DESIGN INFLUENCES AND SECTION 6 - CONCLUSION 1.1 The Applicant and Brief STRATEGIES 1.2 Design Team 4.1 Picturesque Batcombe 1.3 The Location of the Site 4.2 Picturesque Landscape SECTION 7 - ACCESS STATEMENT 1.4 The Existing Buildings 4.3 Building Siting and Orientation 1.5 Planning History and the Design Review Panel 4.4 Massing, Form, Organisation and Layout 4.5 Materials Appendix A SECTION 2 - DESIGN DEVELOPMENT 4.6 Energy Conservation and Generation Ecological Management Plan and Ecological 4.7 Integrated Approach 2.1 1st Response - Classical Design Impact Assessment by Enzygo 4.8 Response to Design Panel Review Comments 2.2 2nd Response - Symmetrical Cottage Orné Appendix B 2.3 Current Scheme - Butterfly Plan Cottage Orné SECTION 5 - DEVELOPMENT PROPOSALS Thermal Modelling report by Ridge SECTION 3 - INSPIRATION FOR THE DESIGN 5.1 Landscape Masterplan 5.2 Architecture 3.1 Landscape History 5.3 Reuse of Old Buildings 3.2 Physical and Character Attributes of the Landscape 5.4 Sustainable Design and Construction 3.3 Landscape Setting 5.5 Gardens 3.4 Analysis of the Village and Surrounding Landscape 5.6 Ecology and Habitat Enhancement 3.5 Local Architecture 5.7 Domestic curtilage 3.6 Picturesque Response to the Setting Valley View Farm, Batcombe | New Country House | January 2021 2 Design and Access Statement Introduction VALLEY VIEW FARM, NEW COUNTRY HOUSE 1.1 The Applicant and Brief “Valley View Farm has provided me with a dream could not find an architect who I knew could design a house that matched butterfly plan. I was delighted with it when I received the plans, although opportunity; for the first time I have been able the splendour and potential of this location. It was during a visit to it was a very long way from my original pre-conceived ideas and from the Yorkshire that I saw a new house whose exceptional quality provided me first design. In the course of my journey from first design to third design, to design a new house. My former home, Pylle with the breakthrough I needed; that breakthrough is of course architects our thinking has changed very radically from what I thought I wanted at the Manor, 6 miles to the west of Batcombe, has to Francis Johnson and Partners. outset to what I am eager to build now. be one of the West Country’s prettiest houses My brief to the designers has been to create something so special, that I have challenged my team to push their boundaries; for instance the very much in the French style, so the design for this site deserves; a traditional country house created with the finest exceptional spatial qualities and visual interest formed by the butterfly the new country house at Valley View has given craftsmanship and materials. Through the last five years my enthusiasm plan of the house will only be realised and appreciated once built, but this me the chance to surpass that. I think it does.” for this house and landscape remains undiminished, indeed I remain is spectacular and will be recognised as such once seen. The landscaped keener than ever to construct one of the finest properties and landscapes setting will transform plain fields into a rich and varied setting, beautiful to “I have lived and worked in Somerset for almost 30 years, with my southern England has seen in scores of years. look at and walk through and also a haven for wildlife.” office near Frome some 10 miles from Batcombe. Being involved in The design of the house has gone through three main phases; the whole property, albeit in the less aesthetic sphere of industrial and outlet retail process started with a letter to Digby Harris on 8 June 2012 setting out Simon Waterfield construction, I have always had an ingrained sense that if constructing and my brief in very basic terms and what was actually produced then grew designing it has to be to the highest quality. For me, such a new house has out of designs for other houses, indeed the first Batcombe design was a . also to be different, to make anyone, even with a limited knowledge or development of an unexecuted Francis Johnson and Partners design for interest in architecture, landscape and ecology to stop, to look and I hope Parlington Hall. to critically appraise positively even if not to their particular liking. After the disappointment of rejection of the initial proposal at appeal, I When I saw Valley View Farm for the first time it was clear that here was was presented with the second proposal – a symmetrical cottage orné a very rare property. Situated in one of Somerset’s prettiest areas, with - the thought being that we needed a different approach to a different its rolling and steep sided hills, its rich and green pasture land on which location on the site and that approach was to be the Picturesque. The dairy cows have produced milk for local cheese makers for centuries, here precedent of Nash’s Hollycombe Lodge was influential as a compromise was 30 acres of largely level ground on which could be built a spectacular between the classical first design and something more informal like house. With glorious views and land hidden from houses, footpaths and Endsleigh Cottage (now Endsleigh House). However this symmetrical roads, this is a site whose size, unlike any that I have ever come across design was rejected by the Design Review Panel, as it was thought not to in this region of the County, could accommodate the best of design, be sufficiently quirky to qualify as a cottage orné proper. architecture and landscape. The third design, presented here, is a fully-fledged cottage orné on a Having lived at the bungalow for a year my patience was being tested as I Valley View Farm, Batcombe | New Country House | January 2021 4 1.2 Design Team FRANCIS JOHNSON AND PARTNERS Architects We have a high reputation for the design of new buildings in classical and traditional styles as well as the scholarly repair and restoration of historic buildings. We pride ourselves on the quality and refinement of our designs, coupled with the soundness of our construction. We are best known for our Country Houses but we also design smaller Village Houses and Cottages as well as Garden Buildings, Commercial Buildings and Interiors. Francis Johnson founded his practice in 1937 in Bridlington, East Yorkshire. His work was mainly concerned with the restoration and alteration of historic houses and with the construction of new houses in historic styles and was the subject of a major exhibition at the RIBA and an architectural biography by John Martin Robinson and David Neave in 2001. The practice has worked across the United Kingdom, from Cornwall to Inverness- shire. Although many of the new houses produced by the practice have been in Hilborough House, Norfolk the Georgian or Neo-Classical style, the design of these buildings has always been site specific. Often the materials employed have been local to the site, or as good a match as is currently available when old quarries have been closed. Hilborough House in Norfolk (2000) was faced with flint with brick dressings to reflect the local vernacular architecture. Additionally Francis Johnson and Partners have picked up and developed local architectural themes in their work. The pair of town houses in St Mary’s, York, which won a design award in 2011, combined a number of features from neighbouring nineteenth century buildings. At Home Farm, Hartforth (2009) the Georgian Gothick style adopted reflected the Gothick farm buildings of the estate. St. Mary’s, York Home Farm, Hartforth Valley View Farm, Batcombe | New Country House | January 2021 5 1.2 Design Team IBBOTSON STUDIOS RIDGE Landscape Architects Building Services Engineering Ibbotson Studios is a landscape architecture and garden design Well designed and maintained building services systems are essential practice dedicated to imaginative, intelligent design, where new in supporting people with their busy lives. Helping them to maximise designs for all kinds of spaces – large, small, public, private or the benefits derived directly from their built environment. commercial – are conceived. Our design approach to Building Services Engineering is to understand the clients brief, interrogate the Ibbotson Studios allow Landscape Architect Mike Ibbotson’s creative talents to flourish, bringing needs and operation of the building and utilise innovative methods in the design process. As buildings together his expertise both in making landscape images and in changing landscapes physically. His are responsible for over 40% of all energy consumption throughout the world, the responsibility of the extensive portfolio of developments in sensitive rural locations, covers all scales from industrial Building Services Engineer to minimise carbon emissions and reduce energy consumption, to meet and mineral extraction to individual replacement houses, and includes a number of successful regulatory change and the sustainable agenda, is vitally important. country house applications through PPS7 and NPPF Paragraph 55 and 79 legislation as well as two Our approach to design is to passively drive the building design and fabric to maximise the replacement houses in isolated locations within National Parks. In his 25 year association with Colvin performance of the building before consideration is given to selecting Building Services systems. Once & Moggridge, a highly regarded practice of landscape architects, he was responsible for some of their this is achieved, selection of equipment is made against simplicity in operation, future maintainability most prestigious projects and his work is in London’s Royal Parks, at National Trust properties and and systems to provide first class internal environmental conditions.