Cameron Road London
Our client had owned a small garage site in Croydon for a number of years using it for the restoration of their classic car collection. They saw the potential for the site to become a home for their retirement and following an initial planning feasibility study approached us to design a 1-bedroom house in place of the garages.
From the outset we felt this was conservative. Although the plot was highly constrained – with issues of overlooking to and from neighbouring properties and the potential for a new building to overshadow the neighbour’s gardens – we were ultimately able to deliver a 4-bedroom house that was accepted by the planning authority as having minimal impact on neighbouring properties.
We used analysis of the sun-path around the building to show that the proposals would create no additional overshadowing to the neighbouring gardens than already cause by the boundary fences. Similarly by setting out two “courtyard” spaces on the site we were able to minimise overlooking and impact on the privacy of the neighbouring windows. The shape and form of the building is therefore derived directly from understanding the constraints of the site, creating an unusual and site-specific new-build house for our client.
By clearly analysing the constraints of the site, and siting the building in response to these we were able to make an argument for a much larger building than our client had anticipated.
