Land to North of Croft Lane, Crondall Friday Street Ltd
Design and Access Statement December 2015
Content 1.0
Introduction
1.1 1.2
Nature of the application Nature of this document
2.0
Design Principles & Concepts
2.1 Layout 2.2 Amount 2.3 Scale 2.4 Appearance 2.5 Landscaping
3.0
Context Assessment
3.1 3.2
4.0
Access
4.1 Parking 4.2 Cycles 4.3 Refuse collection & emergency services vehicle access
5.0
Summary
Application site & surrounding context Conservation Area character assessment
5.1 5.2
Reflection Improvements over 2004 Scheme
6.0
Addenda
6.1 6.2
Photographic study of Crondall village architectural character Brightspace Architects
Croft Lane, Crondall — Design and Access Statement
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1.0 Introduction 1.1 Nature of the application
1.2 Nature of this document
This Design & Access Statement and supporting information accompanies the Conservation Area Consent Application, submitted to Hart District Council, for the proposed residential development (C3 Residential) at the site known as Land north of Croft Lane, Crondall, Hampshire, GU10 5QG.
This document has been written in accordance with the current Design and Access Statement requirements (Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) (Amendment) Order 2013) which state that: (3) a design and access statement shall: (a) explain the design principles and concepts that have been applied to the development; (b) demonstrate the steps taken to appraise the context of the development and how the design of the development takes that context into account; (c) explain the policy adopted as to access, and how policies relating to access in relevant local development documents have been taken into account; (d) state what, if any, consultation has been undertaken on issues relating to access to the development and what account has been taken of the outcome of any such consultation; and (e) explain how any specific issues which might affect access to the development have been addressed.
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This document should be read together with the supporting drawings and documentation as listed in the application form. In particular, this statement should be read with the ‘Planning Statement’ and ‘Heritage Statement’ prepared Southern Planning Practice and CgMS Consulting respectively. Whilst this document includes commentary on all subject matters listed in the Development Management Procedure Order, this application is also accompanied by the appropriate reports and proposals for: • • • • • •
Highways - Vehicular and pedestrian access, parking and servicing Trees - Arboricultural report Ecology - Protected species and the proposed meadow/green space Drainage – Foul and surface water Flood risk Contaminated land
Where the above subject matters are referenced in this document, they are done so only in respect of their influence or impact upon the site layout or architectural aspects of the proposed buildings.
2.0 Design Principles and Concepts The design principles and concepts, which have driven the design development from the earliest stages of conceptual design through to the proposals being submitted for approval here, are described below in terms of Layout, Scale, Appearance and Landscaping.
2.1 Layout The design principles that have shaped the proposed site layout and the design of the buildings that comprise the development have been to: 1. Retain as much green open space as possible, make that open space accessible to the residents of the development and to the public and to maximise the ecological benefits that the retained green space and planting might bring to the village. 2. Retain/provide the green space noted above on the southern half of the site, along the full length of Croft lane, to minimise the visual impact of the proposed housing on external views into the site and into the existing green space, and to respect the sensitivity of relationships between the proposed housing and the Primary school, and the Listed All Saints Church. 3. Respect, retain, and in some locations enhance, the existing hedge-lined character of the site, both in its relationship with Croft Lane and with the site’s surrounding residential neighbours.
Croft Lane, Crondall — Design and Access Statement
4. Improve the existing pedestrian environment along Croft Lane, in particular the safety of pedestrians moving to and from the Primary School opposite the application site. 5. Locate houses that properly address the proposed green open space, providing an attractive back drop to the vistas across the green space and provide passive surveillance of that green space and of the footpaths around it. 6. Minimise the visual impact of the proposed dwellings upon the surrounding neighbours, either through the separating distances between the proposed dwellings and those neighbours, and/or through substantial ‘structural’ planting belts (new or enhancing existing), to augment the protection provided by the separating distances. 7. Properly reflect the organic character of the village in its layout, avoiding ‘municipal’ highways-driven geometries, responding positively to the shape of the site and reflecting the site’s semi-rural character. The layout of the proposed houses can be described essentially in two parts; the first being the ‘outward’ facing houses of Plots 1 to 3 and apartments of Plots 12-14; the second being the ‘inward’ facing houses of Plots 4 to 11, these arrangements being an appropriate response to their respective settings and their relationship with the surrounding neighbours.
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Whilst Plot 1 could have been orientated to have its front elevation address Croft Lane, this has not been proposed due to what the design team considered to be more important aims of a) maintaining the continuous green frontage to Croft Lane, and b) the need for this key building to properly address the green open space and the access road as it enters the site. The apartment building of Plots 12-14 has been intentionally kept back from the sight lines of the east facing façade of the house at The Old Parsonage. This ‘setback’, combined with its lower height closest to the boundary (discussed below), combine to avoid any undue visual impact upon the setting or amenity of The Old Parsonage. The proposed housing and its associated access road occupies just under 2/3rds of the total application site. The area of the remaining site, measuring some 4,800sqm (0.48 ha), will remain a green and open space, accessible to the public, and will also provide a new public footpath, along the full length of the site’s southern boundary. It must be noted that the site is currently ‘private’ land and therefore inaccessible to the public. To protect this green open space against future development, and to ensure it remains accessible and available to the village residents in perpetuity, the applicant is willing to enter into a binding legal agreement with Hart District Council; this matter is discussed further within the Planning Statement submitted with this application. The proposed footpath is further supplemented by 7 new parking / drop-off bays, located directly opposite the Primary School. The benefits of these parking bays and the new footpath are explored further within the Transport Statement that accompanies this application.
2.0 Design Principles and Concepts Constraints and Opportunities Diagram:
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2.2 Amount Chimneys
The type and size of dwellings being proposed is set out in the accommodation schedule here below:
In terms of the approximate site areas, the application site and its uses can be described as follows: Total Application Site: 12,862 sqm / 1.29 ha / 3.2 acres Land occupied by proposed green open space, public footpath and parking bays on Croft Lane: 4,852sqm / 0.49 ha / 1.2 acres Land occupied by proposed development, dwellings, private gardens, access road and structural planting belts between proposed dwelling gardens and the adjoining existing neighbours: 8,010sqm / 0.8 ha / 1.97 The proposed residential development and its access road therefore occupies just under 62% of the total application site, leaving the remaining 38% (over 1/3rd) of the site providing either green, open, publically-accessible space, or tangible community benefits in the form of a safer pedestrian environment on Croft Lane and around the Primary School. With regard to the proposed housing, the development comprises, a total of 14 residential dwellings, five of which will be allocated for ‘affordable’ tenure and the remaining 9 offered to the market. The need for, and provision within the proposals, of Affordable Housing is discussed in detail within the accompanying Planning Statement. Croft Lane, Crondall — Design and Access Statement
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2.3 Scale Chimneys The proposals are for a mix of single, one-and-a-half, and two storey residential buildings. The taller and comparatively more imposing houses, and the relatively larger footprint apartment building, are placed around the edge of the green open space, appropriate to their more ‘open’ setting and where they will have less of an impact upon their immediate neighbours. The smaller and in parts lower dwellings are arranged around the rear edges of the site, where they come closer to the boundaries shared with the surrounding neighbours. Plot 4, which lies closer to the north-eastern boundary than the houses of Plots 1, 2 and 3, has been designed for the most part as a 1-and-a-half storey dwelling, with the express purpose of minimising its visual impact upon the garden of its rearward neighbour, ‘The Platt’. The marginally taller gable of Plot 4 is also intentionally ‘blind’, with no fenestration that can be looked out of, again to avoid any overlooking from the proposed house into the rear garden of ‘The Platt’. We would note however that these mitigating measures are to a large degree outweighed by the separating distance between these neighbours of over 45m.
Croft Lane, Crondall — Design and Access Statement
Plot 7, which also lies close to the north-western boundary, is a single-storey dwelling, with a hipped roof which is set at a lower pitch. The combination of this dwellings height and roof form therefore avoid any overlooking of the adjoining garden of its immediate neighbours, and will minimise its visual impact upon those neighbours. The Apartment building of Plots 12-14, is similarly a shallow-hipped-roof building where it come closer to its existing neighbours of Orchard Court and The Old Parsonage. As noted above, this lower height, combined with the set back of this building in relation to the neighbouring Old Parsonage (noted above) will avoid any negative impacts upon that neighbour.
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2.3 Scale Street Elevations
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2.4 Appearance Chimneys
Facades
Roofs
The proposals draw directly upon the architectural character of the more attractive and historic buildings of Crondall. A photographic precedent review of the existing village houses is included within this statement to illustrate those buildings from which we have taken direct influence when designing the proposed houses and their boundary treatments.
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Rather than identifying specific elements on specific Crondall buildings, and noting exactly where on the proposals we have used those elements, we have instead listed the elements and characteristics here below that have been drawn upon, and will leave it to the annotated drawings to illustrate how these elements have been used in appropriate locations across the development. In no particular order of significance those elements comprise:
Croft Lane, Crondall — Design and Access Statement
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Flemish-bond red brickwork. Painted brickwork. Render and possibly Cobb and/or lime render. Dark stained ship-lapped weatherboarding, straight edged. Plain red clay tile hanging, to walls and within gables. Red ‘rubber’ or ‘cutting’ brick, flat arch and nearly flat arch voussoir lintels (few keystones). Simple brick arch lintels in single and double rows of headers. Simple/retrained feature brickwork such as single courses of projecting tiles between ground and first floor windows. Victorian ‘school house’ and ‘village hall’ brickwork with feature bands and articulation to doors and windows in contrasting coloured brick and/or dressed stonework.
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Predominantly ‘steep’ roof pitches at pitches of 40 degrees and higher. Mix of strong simple gables and hipped end roofs. Ornate/articulated/profiled eaves and soffits with dentil mouldings and eaves brackets. Predominantly plain clay tiles and natural slate. Mix of half-round and twice weathered ridge tiles in clay, ridge and hip weatherings in lead, bonnet tiles to hips. Range of hipped and gabled dormers, either fully within roof slopes, partially within roof slope (and breaking eaves line) and wholly ‘faux’, with window heads set below eaves lines. Some of the more imposing buildings of the village employ parapet walls in their principal facades – the proposals however do not include any parapet walls or water tabling as this was considered inappropriately ‘grand’ for this development.
2.4 Appearance Windows
Doors
Chimneys
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Fine-framed, white painted timber sashes in various formats, including small-paned 10-over-10, 8-over8 and larger-paned 2-over-2 formats; it was difficult to determine from visual inspection the profile of the glazing bars (lamb’s tongue, chamfered, ovolo etc.) without entering private properties. Typically, older examples will be ‘simpler’ and more ‘chunky’ in their profile, whilst the glazing bars in later windows will be more refined and slender. Older sashes without sash horns and later ‘Victorian’ examples with horns. Sash boxes are in some instances concealed and in others are visible/expressed. ‘Venetian’ arrangement sashes with expressed sash boxes. Simple timber casement (cottage) windows with flying central mullions and casements divided by horizontal glazing bars into 2 or 3 equal panes. Chamfered bay sash windows with brick plinth walls and hipped, tiled roofs Simple timber window cills
Croft Lane, Crondall — Design and Access Statement
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Range of 4 and 6 panelled painted timber doors, with mix of solid and glazed upper panels. Ornate fanlights above solid panelled doors. Tongue and groove timber boarded doors (presumably ledged and braced on inside faces), some solid and some with small vision panels. Simple, shallow and flat lead-roofed, bracketed canopies. Deeper, flat lead-roofed, ornately bracketed canopies. Pitch-roofed, solid masonry, gable-fronted entrance porches. Pitch-roofed, bracketed entrance, open gable fronted entrance canopies.
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Simple, square stacks in brick, with restrained detailing of projecting brick courses and corbels at their tops, and with short, plain, single or twin clay pots. Larger, more imposing brick stacks with turned/ chamfered upper parts and ornate/expressed tops and caps, with taller, more decorative clay pots.
Boundary Treatments •
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Low-level brick garden walls to frontages, some backed by taller box hedging, with range of twiceweathered and half-round brick coping. White picket and ‘untreated’ timber picket fencing.
2.5 Landscaping 3.1 Application site and surrounding context
The proposals being submitted here for approval comprise details of:
Whilst the applicant is suggesting the detailed landscaping scheme will be subject to Condition, the proposals being submitted here, and the subsequent detailed proposals that would be submitted to discharge the Condition, would follow the driving principles for the scheme, which are as follows: • Retain as many of the existing trees and hedges as practicable. • Where the boundary hedges are removed, in order to improve highways safety, they are replace ‘inboard’ of the site boundary, to maintain the hedge bounded character of the green open space. • Create/maintain a substantial green open space and make that space accessible to the residents and wider village. • Preserve and enhance existing habitat(s) for local and native species of flora and fauna. • Replace ‘lost’ trees in locations that are outside of private residential ownership and with sufficient space that will enable them to grow to their full maturity, without impacting upon the amenity of any one resident or being at risk of future applications to remove or lop. • Improve pedestrian safety. • Create a within the proposed development a pedestrian-priority, shared surface access road, avoiding municipal geometries, surface treatments and street furniture and creating a ‘softer’ and semirural environment appropriate to its village setting.
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Existing trees and hedges to be removed and in parts replaced. New tree planting. New and enhanced structural planting belts/hedging, primarily to protect privacy and amenity of the surrounding neighbouring gardens. Zones for boundary planting to the frontage of the proposed houses, providing boundary demarcation and softer edges to the house frontages. General description of the shared surface treatment.
With regard to planting plans, plant species, maintenance programmes, kerbing and hard landscaping specifications, external lighting and tree installation details, it is proposed that these will be subject to a Condition to the planning approval. This would enable the applicant, and their specialist consultants, to work closely with Hart District Council’s Tree and Biodiversity officers, and the Highways Officers, in order to create an attractive environment that will meet the needs of (and where possible enhance) local ecology, residents, users of the green open space and local service providers.
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Create hard and trafficable surfaces that are permeable, draining as much of the surface water as possible directly to the ground (attenuated where necessary), thereby minimising the volume of rainwater entering the existing drainage system.
The strategy for accommodating surface and foul water drainage from the proposed development is set out in the Flood Risk Assessment and in the drainage Strategy Plan which accompany this application. Detailed proposals for the permeable drainage and proposed soakaways, would be guided by the findings of a detailed Ground Investigation (GI) survey and report; this GI would follow the planning approval and would precede the submission of a Building Regulations Application.
2.5 Landscaping View across meadow looking towards development
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3.0 Context Assessment 3.1 Application site and surrounding context
3.2 Conservation Area Character Assessment
In respect of its location, setting, surrounding context (built and natural) the application site is described in detail within the Planning Statement and Heritage Statement. The constraints and opportunities which the existing site and surrounding context places upon the proposals are as follows:
Commentary on the history of Crondall, its Conservation Area and how the site contributes to the character of the village and in particular to the character of Croft Lane and the surrounding buildings, is fully explored within the Heritage Statement, prepared by CgMS Consulting.
The existing site is bounded on its north and eastern sides by the substantial, and by modern standards deep, rear gardens of the neighbouring properties on Dippenhall Street and by the back land gardens of Church Street and The Borough. The site’s western boundary is adjoined by the smaller rear courtyard gardens of the sheltered housing of Orchard Court and by the rear gardens, parking areas, courtyards and amenity space for the business units of The Old Parsonage, the main house of which is Listed. Croft Lane bounds the full length of the southern part of the site.
In terms of how the context of the site and the relationship it has with its immediate environs has shaped the proposals is discussed under each of the headings within Section 2.0 of this document.
On the south side of Croft Lane, and facing the application, there is a mix of residential dwellings in the form of detached houses and bungalows, and the relatively imposing presence of Crondall Primary School. To the southwest, and across the corner junction where Church Street meets Croft Lane, there are the larger and equally imposing Crondall Lodge and, albeit set further away from the road behind the foreground of its tree-lined approach and cemetery, the Listed All Saints Church; the latter is particularly relevant in respect of the impact of the proposals upon its immediate setting.
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4.0 Access Highways matters, and particularly the issues of the potential adoption by the Local Authority and of highways safety along Croft Lane, are all discussed in detail in the Transport Statement (TS) prepared by Bellamy Roberts LLP, which accompanies this application. However, the general principles of proposed vehicular and pedestrian access, car parking, cycle parking and refuse collection are as follows: •
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Vehicular access to the site via a single point off Croft Lane in approximately the same location as the existing gated access to the site. The proposed (and existing) vehicular entrance is located towards the eastern end of the southern boundary, approximately half way between the southeast corner of the site and the junction with Glebe Road. Pedestrian access at the vehicular entrance, noted above, and at the extreme south-eastern and southwestern corners of the site, where they adjoin Croft lane. A new publically-accessible footpath along the full length of the site’s southern boundary, along the north side of Croft Lane, to provide a new and safe footpath for a substantial portion of this road that currently does not exist. New parallel parking/drop-off bays opposite the Primary School, adjoined by the new footpath, all within the application site boundary.
4.1 Parking
4.2 Cycles
A more detailed explanation of car parking provision is set out in the TS that accompanies the application, noted above, in summary however the proposed parking is fully compliant with the requirements set out in the relevant Hart District Council planning policies, with all the necessary allocated and visitor parking spaces. The proposed shared surface access road provides more than sufficient circulation, access and reversing space to enable all residents to leave the site in a forward gear.
Bicycles will be securely stored either within the garages of those houses that have them, or within 6ft x 4ft sheds located securely within the rear gardens of those houses without garages. Visitors would be expected to leave their bicycles within the secure rear garden curtilage of whichever property they are visiting.
Plots 1 to 4, and Plots 9-14, all have parking that is either entirely ‘on plot’, or far enough off the main access road to minimise the need for residents to park ‘casually’ on the access road; this is preferable from an aesthetic as well as a vehicular and pedestrian safety standpoint. Plots 5 to 8 have their parking within a dedicated parking court at the far end of the access road, the ‘dead end’ location of this parking court ensures that vehicles manoeuvring in and out of these spaces will not impinge upon the safety of other vehicles or pedestrians moving in and out of the site.
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4.0 Access View from Croft Lane entrance
This view, which has been drafted using an accurate 3D CAD model of the site topography and the proposed houses, illustrates how the houses in the rear parts of the site are not easily visible in the gap between Plots 3 and the apartments of Plots 12-14 (in the centre of this view). The overriding impression of the development as seen from Croft Lane, will be that of a small number of detached and individually-styled houses fronting the green open space.
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4.0 Access 4.3 Refuse collection & emergency services The matter of the potential adoption of the access road by the Local Authority is discussed in the TS that accompanies this application, which may affect the strategy for refuse collection. However, in practical terms, the proposed access road provides sufficient room for the 26 tonne, 8.3m long, twin-axle Refuse Collection Vehicle (RCV), expected to be used here, to enter the rearmost parts of the site and complete a three point turn manoeuvre to be able to leave in a forward gear. Fire Service vehicles of a similar size could equally access and manoeuvre within the rearmost part of the site, allowing fire service personnel to reach all parts of the proposed houses well within typical maximum fire hose ‘reach’ distances.
The proposals do not include the location of ‘public’ litter bins or ‘dog waste’ bins near the green open space, or along the proposed footpath adjacent to Croft Lane. However, they can easily be provided within the application site if they were deemed necessary by the Local Authority, subject to discussion with the applicant in respect of their location(s) and maintenance/servicing by the Local Authority.
Storage of recyclable and non-recyclable domestic refuse bins will be on hard standing within the rear gardens of each house or apartment. On collection days, residents will take their bins to the around to the front of their dwellings and leave their bins on the edge of the access road/shared surface for collection. There will be no commercial waste generated by the proposed development.
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5.0 Summary The proposals fully respond to, respect and preserve the existing character of Croft Lane, the Conservation Area and the wider village. The proposed houses will also provide a meaningful contribution towards meeting the current and significant shortfall present in Hart District Council’s 5 Year Housing Land Supply.
Croft Lane, Crondall — Design and Access Statement
5.1 Reflection The importance and sensitivities of the Conservation Area, existing trees, hedges, ecology, drainage issues and flood risk, highways and pedestrian safety and of the privacy and amenity of the surrounding neighbours have all been fully recognised and considered by the team of consultants, appointed by the applicant, who are all specialists in their respective fields. The supporting documentation and preparatory work undertaken for this planning application is testament to the applicant’s commitment to proposing an appropriate, sustainable and deliverable development that will provide a positive contribution to the village.
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5.0 Summary 5.2 Improvements over 2004 Scheme In terms of ‘improvements’ over the 2004 Planning Appeal Site Layout, as discussed in greater detail within the Planning Statement (prepared by Southern Planning Practice Ltd), one of the core the design principles of the site layout was to keep the visible ‘frontage’ of development to Croft Lane as small as possible. The benefits of this key design principle are three fold, those being: • • •
to minimise the visual impact upon the neighbours directly opposite the site on Croft Lane, to retain as far as possible the hedge lined character of Croft Lane, and to maintain as much as possible of the existing green open space abutting Croft Lane.
Appealed and Proposed Layout (shown in red) - not to scale
Croft Lane, Crondall — Design and Access Statement
Illustrative Site Layout - not to scale
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6.0 Addenda 6.1
The following photographs are of some of the more attractive “heritage” houses in Crondall.
Photographic study of Crondall village architectural character
Architectural elements from these houses have been used across the proposals where they are appropriate for the location of each building.
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Elevations
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Windows
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Doors
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Roofs
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Chimneys
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6.2 BrightSpace Architects Our Approach
Brightspace Architects are a practice of experienced and capable designers and technical experts who collectively and individually have a long track record of delivering high-quality developments in highly sensitive, technically challenging and historic environments. We are particularly experienced in delivering projects with multiple and often conflicting constraints and opportunities, carefully balancing the needs of the various stakeholders, including our clients, the future users, neighbours, wider community and flora and fauna.
Every project is unique, each having its own specific drivers. To ensure we achieve the best possible solution for each project, we employ a simple and robust four stage approach on every project we undertake. This approach, which is highlighted opposite can be applied to each and every phase of the design and delivery process.
Our founding principles, our approach and our design philosophy, which we apply to every project we undertake regardless of size of complexity, comprises four key stages, those being:
Understand : Explore : Resolve : Deliver For each project we spend a considerable amount of the total time available to us on the first two stages. This time spent in the preparatory stages allows us to fully understand the client’s brief, the site context and its sensitivities, the primary concerns and interests of the key stakeholders and the widest possible constraints and opportunities that the project and its context bring to the table. The exploratory stage comprises extensive testing of possible solutions against the brief and the project’s constraints and opportunities. Only when the best possible solution is agreed upon is it then refined, or ‘resolved’, in readiness to submit for the necessary approvals and then taken forward to its successful delivery on site.
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