The past couple of weeks have been frustrating. Having spent months designing the house we want, having invested a lot of brain power and significant funds in architects fees, we had been very hopeful about the upcoming planning submission.
Some brief scene-setting to bring you up to speed: we withdrew the original planning application in August and parted with the original architect. The feedback from planning on that submission was also not great - they specifically wanted less "massing" and less "fenestration".
We appointed the current architects and have so far had a fantastic relationship and are working well together. We worked on reducing the massing and fenestration whilst maintaining our design requirements and aspirations.
So - we have spent the past 8 weeks actively refining the design. Before hitting the "go" button though, we had the foresight to approach the planners informally to understand their take on the new design...
They still don't like it though. I could talk at length about our disappointment but won't. We are doing everything we can to try and rectify the situation. So, you won't hear much on this side I would imagine, before New Year... During this time we also have consider concessions we might be prepared to make to the design in order to satisfy the planners, something we are really finding hard to deal with.
A final thought: at what point was it decided that it is a worthwhile idea to preserve old buildings that were built for function, and not built for their architectural merit?
