Paragraph 79 Hampshire

Re-Format were commissioned to investigate the re-purposing of a redundant and overgrown site in the heart of the South Downs National Park.

The site is positioned on a gentle slope that falls away to a stream on the north side. Combined with dense tree cover on the south side, the site feels tranquil and separate from the rest of the village, which is reflected in its exclusion from the settlement boundary.

As such, proposals are being developed under Paragraph 79 of the NPPF, which allows isolated development where the design is outstanding or innovative and significantly enhances its setting.

The architecture of the building takes inspiration from the nearby chalk hills and the flow of the stream, which drive both the materiality of the building and its form – a cluster of monolithic, rammed chalk volumes linked by minimal glass bridges and arranged around a central courtyard to evoke the erosive path of the stream over time.

The proposed scheme involves a large portion of the site being opened up as public parkland for community use, which also helps to provide the setting for a new 5-bedroom house.