Conservation and Reinvention

All development should aim to conserve and enhance the special qualities of the National Park by making a worthy contribution to an environment that has taken many generations to evolve. Work that relates closely to existing buildings should draw inspiration from and exhibit to the same principles, which informed the work of our predecessors.

"With proper understanding of the historic environment, clarity of purpose and sensitivity to the quality of place, excellent new build and design will both complement and enhance the historic environment"

English Heritage – Power of Place, 2003

In this context, Conservation refers to an understanding the historic environment and recognition of the continuity of a process to which we contribute today. A narrower definition might focus on the protection, repair, or reinstatement of historic buildings or artefacts. Many of our actions affect the overall character of the National Park and that, in building terms, alterations, extensions and conversions are as much facets of conserving that character as the more specific activities of maintenance and repair.

The National Park Authority recognises that technological innovation, the availability of new materials, and the development of a regulatory framework for building are creating a new climate for contemporary architecture.  Many property owners are well aware of the direction in which  technology is moving and wish to take advantage of it in their own development.

The National Park Authority does not wish to obstruct these changes. However it considers that contemporary architecture should be locally distinctive.  The careful analysis of established forms of building in the Park, extended to include contemporary technology and related materials and to meet the standards and regulations which apply nationally to all building, is Reinvention.

As with Conservation this process still aims to encourage a sensitive contribution to a cherished environment and in using this part of the Design Guide the reader is encouraged to consider the earlier section on Understanding Traditional Buildings. We set out below the key criteria which emerge from the understanding.

"We are seeking an approach to new building in rural areas which is genuine, innovative and sustainable while at the same time enhancing the character of the area in which it is sited and respecting its context."

"A new vernacular building should seek to respond creatively to each of these issues at each level of environmental scale:

• Energy: Energy consumption in construction and in use should be minimized
• Materials: Building Materials should be long lasting or form a renewable source
• Flexibility: Buildings should be capable of adaptation and modernisation over time
• Quality: Buildings should be healthy, give delight and inspiration and be simple to manage
• Environment: New development should seek to enhance the landscape, local character and the natural ecosystem
• Community" Development should be part of a viable community"

From Towards a New Vernacular: The Countryside Agency

Reticence:

• The habit of understatement: not striving for effect or seeking to impress with novelty

There is a general habit of understatement in good traditional design in the National Park. Whether it is in the massing and form of buildings or in detailing there is a strong sense that previous generations were not striving for effect or novelty but readily accepted a common vocabulary and discipline.  It really looks as though they were content with their achievement.  It must also be remembered that simplicity of design often requires a high level of confidence and skill to achieve, particularly in regard to contemporary design and modern materials in a sensitive environment.  

Apt expression of function:

• Creating a recognisable building form for the intended use

Good design should ensure that we can recognise a building for what it is and see clearly how it works. A public house or hotel should be designed so that the visitor can clearly see where the entrance is and be made to feel welcome. It is surprising how many fail even that test.  Furthermore all new buildings should reflect the need to provide accessibility for all. In the traditional character of building in the Park there is a hint of the primary and subsidiary functions of different parts of a group of buildings. This may also reflect graded status, but this is often subtly hinted at in changes in materials or the way they are handled, for instance a shift from dressed stone to random rubble or from sash windows to casements.

Order:

• Underlying discipline

The old classical order accepting symmetry and balance provided a useful framework for the designer and many buildings and groups of buildings, such as the widespread 18th and 19th Century farmsteads, reflect that pre-occupation with an underlying discipline. So often it is not decorative quality but a sense of inevitability about the siting and assembly of parts of the building or group that impress us most.

While some older groups of buildings appeal to the eye with a picturesque disorder it is very difficult to achieve satisfactory results by contrived disorder.

Integrity of Structure:

• Recognising the structural possibilities and limitations of different materials

The structural elements of the traditional building consisted of heavy stone walls punctured by openings for windows and doors: the walls capable of supporting the loads of internal floors and the roof structure.  his system was limited by the structural possibilities of timber and the simple rules of carpentry. The size of openings was governed by the simple span of a stone slab for a lintel or could be increased by a more elaborate arch.

The size of window and door openings is governed by the strength of the simple stone lintel - or can increased by the use of an arch.

The structural possibilities of the high tensile strengths of timber and steel allow a quite different but equally valid alternative aesthetic.

An increased knowledge of the properties of materials and the use of relatively new materials such as steel and reinforced concrete, alongside an understanding of the performance of laminated timber, makes a the building of new structures possible. There are occasions when the new materials of today are disguised, for example steel reinforced artificial stone lintols to span wide openings which natural stone would never have been strong enough to do.

Consistency of Detailing:

The careful assembly of components: the way they relate to the character of the whole: an honest use of material.

Detailing is not just ornament or decoration, but the precise way in which components of a building are assembled; the intrinsic relevance of the detailing to the whole character. There is very little ornament in traditional buildings in the National Park but much exquisite detailing. Therefore in the best contemporary work, the care and attention given to detailing is important to understand a building's quality. In some ways the contemporary designer's task is made more difficult by the far wider choice of materials and components of building construction and services. A deliberate and voluntary limitation of the range of materials often helps to make detailing more consistent within a scheme, but again a knowledge of the true character of different material will lead to appropriate detail for each, whether the materials are those of traditional buildings or of today. Even glass which spans centuries of fenestration can create new solutions to the detailing of edges, fixings and sub-division in contemporary buildings.

Exquisite detailing: a stable door and window above

Integration:

Harmony with neighbouring buildings and the landscape by appropriate siting, massing, scale, proportion, rhythm, material, and landscaping.

Not to "stick out like a sore thumb" should be the aim of new buildings in the National Park. This might not seem a very grand ambition but it calls for some sensitivity to achieve the level of harmony and neighbourly good manners that so characterises the traditional scene. Even in that context however significant buildings did stand out; perhaps like a church, to reflect the community's acknowledgement of a central role in their culture, or in the case of the larger house or castle reflecting the ambitions and status of the owner. These exceptions may have been rare and there may continue to be rare exceptions today. The National Park Authority will expect the highest quality of design to justify the exceptionally conspicuous development. In any case the criteria set out in this document will serve as a ground for assessing the exceptional just as much as the everyday project. Each will need to integrate with its setting by considering the following qualities:

• Siting: How a building fits into the grain of the landscape in terms of placing and orientation: how a new building should be placed to avoid intruding on a neighbour's privacy or disrupting existing spatial qualities. There will be many practical factors to take into account as well, such as access, orientation, drainage, and external spatial function.
• Massing: The way the different parts of the development are brought together to achieve a balanced composition with a visual hierarchy.  In more complex buildings this will reflect the ordering of spaces into primary and subsidiary functions.
• Scale: The human dimension is the constant factor in buildings and is used as the reference point for determining the size of the different elements or spaces of the structure.  The proportions of the entrance door to a church may be very close to the proportions of the neighbouring cottage door but we deduce a difference in status by the change of scale: the church door deliberately larger and more impressive.

The change in scale between the country house and the cottage is measured against the human dimension as constant. The proportions of the two doors are the same but we deduce a difference in status by the change of scale.

• Proportion: Closely allied to scale in defining the relationship of parts to the whole and to each other, solid to void, and the arrangement of elements.  Finely argued mathematical theories of proportion have been in circulation from Ancient Greek academies down to post-war Schools of Architecture: they tend to rationalise what most people can judge with a keen eye for harmony and balance.
• Rhythm: the arrangement of constituent parts as a sub-text for the whole: like the satisfactory repetition of a good detail such as the hemmel arch with smaller windows above found in so many Northumbrian farms; the buildings gain their character largely from the interplay of openings and wall.

• Materials and colour: The choice of materials and colour is vastly wider than it was for previous generations. Mindful of their achievements and seeking to integrate our buildings today we may voluntarily restrict our choice to materials which will weather well, match comfortably with existing materials and not strike harsh contrasts. This does not preclude the choice of modern man-made materials nor deny the possibility of deliberate punctuation with bright complementary colour.
• Landscaping and external features: Integration of buildings by thinking carefully about their landscape setting does not necessarily mean elaborate planting or hard landscapes more suited to the town park. Note how the Cheviot farmstead is tied into the landscape by the enclosing field walls, a clump of two or three mature sycamores and different outbuildings. The detail is not so important as the general setting.  In the village careful thought should be given to boundary features. In dealing with living material in the landscape the time factor must be considered; the long view of the tree grower may need supplementing with shorter-term impact.