Today

60 December/January April/May 2011 2015/16 Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today www.KCWToday.co.uk 020 7738 2348
December/January 2015/16
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
61
Arts & Culture
Arts & Culture
online: www.KCWToday.co.uk
Architect Adalberto Libiera
BRICKS AND
BRICKBATS
BY ATRIUM
Patronage at
a price worth
paying
The Flint House was a worthy
winner of the RIBA House
of the Year, shown as a Grand
Designs special this year, following its
abandonment of the RIBA Stirling
Prize some years ago. Architecture can,
and does, make good television when
presented in the right way, and noone
surpasses Kevin McCloud for his
knowledge, enthusiasm and laid-back
style.
The architects were a small but
distinguished London practice, Skene
Catling de la Pena, for a patron whose
family have commissioned probably
more houses, they number more than 40
across Europe, than any; the Rothschilds.
Their estate at Waddesdon Manor,
completed in the early 1880s, was
designed by a French architect who
gloried in the name of Hippolyte
Destailleur. For followers of modern
architecture, there’s an interesting
precedent for the form, namely Casa
Malaparte (at left) on the island of
Capri, but of course the Flint House
reflects its setting in the Chilterns,
hence a traditional use of knapped flint.
And the architect’s intention is that
the mosses and lichens found locally
should reclaim the building and the
site, just the sort of rare humility one
welcomes. Such quality does not come
cheap, but who’s counting? Certainly
not Lord Rothschild. He builds for
generations.
Photographs © James Morris
The Planning
Consent
Conundrum
An Architect’s View
By Tom Pike
Why is it that obtaining
Planning Permission to
extend or alter one’s home is
such a painful and frustrating process?
There is a short answer to this question,
but I’m not altogether sure if it is
printable!
The main problem lies in the fact that
since the 1970s successive governments
have instigated one initiative after
another in the attempt to ease the whole
planning process i.e. to make it easier for
homeowners to gain planning consent.
But we all know that when governments
meddle in due process, they are past
masters at complicating matters.
Consequently the issue of gaining
planning consent to build or to alter a
building is now more convoluted and
protracted than it ever has been.
Gone are the days of being able to
ring up one's local authority planning
department to ask for some basic
guidance on a planning issue. Nowadays
Above: Contemporary glazed extensions to a Regency villa
Right: A rear dining room addition to a substantial Victorian house
if you call the planners and ask for
any form of advice or direction, you
are referred to their website (planning
portal) and are directed to their Pre-
Planning Consultative Service. In
principle this is fine until you discover
that in order to take advantage of this
service it requires a formal application,
involving a full set of architects drawings,
a substantial fee to be paid, which is
significantly more than the planning
fee for actually making a planning
application, and worse is to come, the
preplanning consultation process takes
almost as much time as a planning
application. To compound all this, the
advice that one receives back from the
planning department is usually couched
in such negative rhetoric (a case of the
glass being more than half empty!)
that one is left wondering if it’s going
to be worthwhile to make the planning
application at all. Planning Officers are
far more likely to tell you what you can’t
do as opposed to telling you what you
can do.
Since planning authorities launched
their Pre-Planning Consultation Service,
casually referred to as a ‘pre-app.’ in
2008 we as architects have only found
the process to be counterproductive. In
short, we have found it to be a waste of
time, money and effort.
In the last few years we have found
it more effective to by-pass the pre-app.
process, and instead to move swiftly on
to lodging a full planning application
with the local authority.
Having submitted the application we
then monitor it closely and tenaciously
and do all in our powers to shepherd
the scheme through to a formal consent
being granted.
Local authorities themselves are
well disposed towards the pre-app.
process for two understandable reasons.
Firstly it buys them more time in which
to deal with a planning application,
and secondly it provides them with
an additional income stream. So, one
doesn’t have to be overly cynical to see
why the planners encourage applicants
to go down the pre-app. route.
To successfully navigate the vagaries
of the planning system, it is important
to engage a firm of architects and/ or
planning consultants with relevant
experience and with a proven track
record…a firm who can work within or
around the planning policies of the local
authority.
Tom Pike is a partner in Giles
Pike Architects, which is a practice
specialising in residential design projects.
Photographs © Giles Pike Architects
Pied à terre?
That’ll be £88m
Ian Simpson is the most famous
Manchester export, in design terms,
since Norman Foster 60 years ago.
The architect heads up Simpson
Haugh, noted for a string of
distinctive buildings in his home city, but
now active on four residential sites in
London.
His Hilton Tower in Manchester is
the tallest building in the UK outside
London. At its peak, there is a two-storey
penthouse occupied by, you guessed it,
Ian Simpson!
While he is busy on an early phase of
Battersea Power Station, his other major
project on the South Bank is receiving
even more attention: One Blackfriars.
As far as I know it has yet to acquire
a nickname. We already have the
Gherkin, the Shard, the Walkie-Talkie,
the Cheese-grater and several others,
but given its distinctive form, would the
Hunchback be out of place?
The 50-storey tower rises 170m.
Prices from £2.3m. The developer is
St George, part of the phenomenally
successful Berkeley Group.
Your correspondent just happened
to be talking to a Berkeley sales rep the
other day, and asked about the cost of
the three-storey apartment at its apex.
The reply: £88m.
The difference between one-off
houses, such as the Flint House for a
distinguished architectural patron, the
overseas investor, and those who rely on
social housing, has never been greater.
Thank heavens the London market is
predicted to take a tumble.
Soon won’t be soon enough.
Architects Simpson Haugh and Partners
ARCHITECTURE • PLANNING ADVICE • INTERIOR DESIGN • PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Giles Pike Architects specialise in high-end residential projects, including
new build, alterations and extensions to houses and apartments.
www.gilespike.com
020 7924 6257
537 Battersea Park Road
London SW11 3BL