Monday 15 June 2015

Conserving integrity.


There is one expression in the UK that is of paramount importance when asking for planning permission for either restoring an old house, or changing the use of an existing agricultural (or other) building to domestic use.... That is, to 'CONSERVE THE INTEGRITY OF THE BUILDING'.

Strangely, here in France, it seems to be the opposite.

Back in about 1978 when I asked for planning permission to restore and extend a tiny ruined cottage (built circa 1750) where we now live, I was told that when finished the whole building must be cement rendered. To me this spelt no less than architectural assassination; and I ignored their instruction. The idea of covering over beautiful ancient weathered stone walls with concrete was just plain madness.

But the French themselves love to take an old building and make it look new. They will start with a 'picture postcard cottage' and change it into something modern. In fact they are often ordered to do so as part of their planning application.

I don't wish to sound as if I know best, because I don't; but as a designer/artist I do understand a bit about aesthetics.

Take this as an example. One of our neighbours is doing much as we are, and is converting an old Tobacco drying barn into a house, but where we are trying (with difficulty) to preserve as much of the original look of the building as possible, she has hidden all reference to both the original use of the building and its mighty structure. The old barn has already been re-clad  with synthetic boards, and I believe that all the interior beams etc will eventually be hidden. Again I don't wish to say that she is wrong and we are right, but just to point-out the difference between the two cultures. Such practices in the UK would be totally outlawed.


Personally I'm of the opinion that certain finishes are more appropriate to an industrial estate, than on the exterior of an old séchoir à tabac; but who am I to dictate. For a brand new-Eco build they would look fine; for a restoration project, not.

It really is no exaggeration to say that without the Brits and the Dutch, much of the beautiful old French vernacular architecture would have been lost.... We like to preserve it; for some reason, they are not so concerned.


25 comments:

  1. Years ago, when we first started looking for a holiday home in France, there were some of the most beautiful, old, stone clad buildings going for a song. We were told that the French prefer new build to old - goodness knows why. Perhaps it's the association with the past, when so many of them lived in dire poverty in ancient, crumbling family homes?

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  2. I think we Brits have more of a feel for history and possibly nostalgia

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  3. Exact opposite of UK, barn conversions are allowed but planning usually dictates that they remain looking like barns, keeping the original openings, stonework and roof slates; no chimneys allowed.

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  4. Reading this has engendered the same sort of feeling I get when I see fly-tipping down a country lane.

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  5. Here in the UK Cro rules are very strict within the National Parks - hardly anything is allowed it seems, although they have relaxed the rules a bit lately.
    We live just outside - about 1 mile - and it does make things a little easier, but we couldn't get permission to extend one of our little barns - it needed enough extension for two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen - all built in the vernacular - but permission could not be obtained. Now the barn is falling down. So sad.

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    1. The UK planning people occasionally behave like little Hitlers, and damn the consequences.

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  6. It is the extreme reverse here. Some customers of mine told me that they intended to remove a 1960s, green-tiled, concrete fire surround from their Bath apartment and replace it with a Georgian stone copy in the right style.

    I told them not to - under any circumstances - go to the planning authorities, but they did. The planning officer came to their apartment, photographed the green thing and immediately listed it, saying that it was to stay there forever on pain of prosecution.

    They get drunk with the power to influence the very domestic lives of their victims, but we really cannot do without them, for fear of ending up like rural France.

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    1. A reasonable amount of liberty is fine, but some of the horrors I've seen here cannot ever be un-done.

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  7. Tom said what I was going to say !!! We tend to go completely the other way here in the UK. Our last home, a 17th Century cottage, was listed and we were told that we had to repoint the front of the house exactly how they would have done it in 1664 !!!! …. which cost three times as much as just pointing it in a perfectly reasonable, sympathetic way !! I am passionate about preserving our old buildings but they go too far sometimes I think.
    Is there anything like ' listing ' in France Cro ? XXXX

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    1. I don't think there is; not for 'ordinary' domestic properties anyway. Even our village château had all its interior panelling removed by a temporary wayward owner.... I expect it's all in Japan now.

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  8. Crikey I'm trying to imagine anyone getting away with recladding an old barn here! I've always liked the colours of the stone in your house. Ours is Derbyshire stone, which is a little ..well uniformly grey

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    1. Our local stone is rather similar to Cotswold stone. It mellows nicely.

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  9. When we watch the tour de France on the tv we often say that France will be pretty when it is finished.
    There was a barn near the village where we would go to the market which I loved. It was my dream to stay in France and restore it. Ah well, it was't meant to be.
    Helen

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  10. Your neighbours sound like West Australians to me

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    1. That sounds like a loosely veiled insult.

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    2. Ha! It is a self-deprecating insult.
      We live on a boom and bust cycle here. New money thumbs its nose at old, and old money sighs at the concrete tilt-ups, plastic weatherboards and smirking Buddhas imported from Bali.

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  11. I am slowly becoming a libertarian (don't know if it is the same meaning in Europe). Done with government interference in every part of our lives. You can't paint your house now if it was built before the late 1970's until it is first inspected, then a crew has to hazmat the area and remove all the old paint lest a flake of lead paint land on the ground. It has become ridiculous and one can't afford all the new rules and regs. So, the old paint just flakes off anyway and covers the ground or blows away in a breeze throughout the area. Wonder if they have so many laws in Tasmania, or Tierra del Fuego?

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  12. There seems to be some trend here at the moment to render the front of houses and paint them white, they then have no character at all. Some of the old houses in Dyke Road have had this treatment and its such a shame ( I expect you know Dyke Road Cro)
    Briony
    x

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    1. My house in St Nicholas Rd is painted white, and the one in Kew St is also painted. One thing I've always told my children is NEVER to buy a painted house; always go for brick or stone; so much cheaper in the long run.

      Dyke Rd always makes me think of huge (white painted) Eagles on top of gate posts. I think most of those houses are care homes now.

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  13. Planners are not good over here. They are best avoided. My cat flap alone could have me served with an Enforcement Notice for not obtaining permission for it on a listed building. My Sky Dish would probably have me imprisoned. Never, ever talk to a planner. All barns in S Norfolk have to be painted black because the planners think that Norfolk barns were black. They were black because creosote was black. The planners think the farmers were so aesthetically minded they painted them black. They weren't. Now all we have are black barns. The barns could be beautifully colourful but we just get Barn Black, a paint colour has been invented for the purpose.

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    1. Do they also have to reek of creosote?

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    2. And if they couldn't afford Creosote, they used Tractor Sump oil.

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  14. Wow, the French sure have it wrong on this one!!! Even around here, too many beautiful old stone farmhouses have been covered up with hideous siding. Some people really have no taste!

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