Unexpected Planning Approval

Today we received planning approval for the building of a new large extension to an existing farm house to provide holiday accommodation. Not that unusual outside these areas but this is Cumbria, where planning approval for such things is not the norm.


The design takes as its main influence the barn that once stood on this site and aims to reproduce the massing and feel of this now missing building. The proposed use of the structure is ancillary to the large double fronted Georgian Farm house and is designed to reflect this. This relationship would also have been like this historically, when the homestead was a working farm and the adjoining barn was intact and useable. Fenestration has been reduced and kept to a minimum on the side elevations, with the only large glazed area to the gable end elevation. This has been a conscious decision to allow full benefit of the views and also to allow the architecture to express its contemporary use and be honest to its actual purpose. The positioning of the contemporary elements on the gable allows the more traditional front and rear elevations to be read in context with the existing dwelling and not to be visible from the nearby village. This approach to the design, allows the extension to sit appropriately in its setting without looking out of context and be in keeping with its immediate vernacular.