richard asbury.qxp_Layout 1 25/09/2020 09:15 Page 1
ARCHITECTURE | COMMENT
A sustainable urban future?
How can we develop our city without detracting from its existing heritage? Richard Asbury, director of Bathbased Maack Architects, talks sustainable development, well-designed homes and conserving our green spaces Richard Asbury
T
he economy is on the brink of collapse. Climate change is an existential threat to humanity. The planning system is broken. We need more houses. Whether you agree with these desperate cries or not, the government’s recent response to these crises has been to slash planning red tape and encourage us to “build, build, build”. This summer, Boris Johnson announced sweeping reforms to the planning system and issued a white paper entitled Planning For The Future, which started a consultation period to look at how to make it easier to build better homes in England. While this announcement was music to the ears of developers and investors, it struck fear into the hearts of conservationists, preservationists and assorted guardians of our green and historic land.
44 TheBATHMagazine
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ocTober 2020
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issue 214
So should we be concerned? Bath and its surrounds are perhaps some of the greenest and most historic in the land. Surely, if we are being encouraged to build more, won’t it threaten our unique architectural and environmental heritage? Well, as ever, it’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it. Some of us embrace progress, while others find it hard to accept changes to tradition. When it comes to building in our own backyard, however, it seems our inner NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) is often awoken. We wish they’d just leave things alone, and if something has to be built then we want lots of rules and conditions to make sure that it doesn’t change the view from our window. But, as anyone who has sought planning permission knows, the rules can be complex and cumbersome. The current system is slow, unpredictable, and perhaps more importantly, has not encouraged the supply of better quality, better-designed, sustainable homes. This is partly what the government reforms are trying to address. Likewise, this is where there are opportunities for individuals and small independent developers to change the way things are done. If we want to retain control of our cherished urban and rural environment, we need to lead by example to create a better
BELOW AND RIGHT: This proposed new dwelling is situated on a sloping site on North Road. The two storey house is designed to Passive House standards and built into the site to minimise impact on the views from adjacent properties
environment – this means we should be involved in developing it ourselves. While the proposed changes to the planning system are arguably the most radical since the introduction of the Town and Country Planning Act in 1947, it’s interesting to remember that most of Bath and the surrounding towns and villages were built before any national planning policy even existed. We all know that Bath’s origins lie, according to legend, with its founding around 860BC when Prince Bladud (the ‘real-life’ father of Shakespearean King Lear) had his leprosy cured by the mud of the hot springs. The Romans, who loved a good mud treatment, saw the benefits and subsequently built a settlement around 50AD called Aquae Sulis. The Romans also liked nice regular streets laid out on a grid and used strict architectural codes for the design of their buildings – perhaps the first planning restrictions that Bath had seen. When the Romans eventually left, their regular street pattern gave way to less well-planned medieval streets. Buildings were packed closely together and designed more according to need and available skill and materials – architecture without architects. The medieval market town then smartened up itself up for the tourist trade and
