Conservation Area Residential Site

Project Information

Client: Redrow

Location: St Nicholas, Vale of Glamorgan

Service: Landscape Architecture & Urban Design

A small infill residential site for a hundred homes on the edge of a Conservation Area in St. Nicholas in the Vale of Glamorgan.

The Challenge

The Urbanists were commissioned by Redrow to develop a masterplan and associated Full Planning Application package on an allocated site just north of the A48 in St Nicholas village. The location of the site, adjacent to the St Nicholas Conservation Area, required a sensitive approach to the layout and character of the proposed development

Our Role

We undertook a detailed analysis of the context and character of St Nicholas village and other villages within the Vale of Glamorgan. The aim of this was to fully set the proposed development into the context of not only the immediate surroundings and character of St. Nicholas but those of the wider Vale. From this we were able to make recommendations on:

Changes to architectural detailing; housetypes were re-elevated to include materials and features which were sympathetic to nearby properties, particularly those within the Conservation Area.
Landscape treatment, boundaries and entrances of the development; ensuring it would be appropriate to the setting of the Conservation Area and promoting character through appropriate landscape specification and boundary treatments such as stone walls.

The Outcome

We collaborated with Redrow’s internal technical team to redesign the elevational treatment of the housetypes and negotiated these design changes with the Council’s Planners. The 100 home development received Full Planning pPermission at committee in October 2016.