Design and access statements

Architectural plans

We are not architects and we do not produce architectural plans. Scaled drawings are prepared by your architect, architectural designer or surveyor. Where you do not have one, we can recommend one. Where drawings already exist, we use them.

Our work is to read the plans against the development plan and say whether the scheme is one the Council can grant. That advice is not tied to a drawing fee.

Sketch schemes

A sketch scheme is an early drawing, before a full set of architectural plans. It is the right moment to test height, position and the number of homes against policy. We review a sketch scheme and tell you what would need to change before money is spent on a full drawing package.

The sketch comes from you or your designer. We mark up the planning points. We do not redraw it as an architectural set.

Design and access statements

A design and access statement explains the design principles, how the scheme responds to the site, and how people get to and into it. In England it is required with an application for major development, with listed building consent, and with some applications in a conservation area or World Heritage Site for a new home or a building of 100 square metres or more. A householder extension outside those cases does not usually need one.

We write the design and access statement from the drawings and from a visit to the policy, and we say in the quote whether your application needs one. On a full application it is part of the work. On a listed building it has to deal with the special interest of the building.

Street scene assessments

A street scene assessment describes how the proposal reads in the street: the building line, the gaps, the height against its neighbours, and the rhythm of the frontages. Councils ask for one where a new house, a roof extension or a larger replacement would change the street.

It is written from the street scene drawing your designer prepares, and from what is already there. The assessment says what changes and why that change is acceptable.

Bulk and mass drawings and assessments

Bulk and mass is the volume of the building: height, depth and width, and how that volume sits against the houses next door. Bulk and mass drawings show that comparison. The drawings are part of the architectural plans. The bulk and mass assessment is the written case that goes with them.

We prepare the assessment. We do not prepare the drawings. If the mass is the point the application will turn on, we say so from the sketch scheme, before the final plans are issued.

Shadow studies and sunlight studies

A shadow study shows where shadows fall, and at which times of day. A sunlight study measures daylight and sunlight to windows and gardens, usually following the Building Research Establishment guide, Site layout planning for daylight and sunlight. Councils ask for one or both where a neighbour's light, or light to a new home, is likely to decide the application.

We say whether a shadow study or a sunlight study is needed when we quote. The technical model is prepared by a daylight specialist and paid to them. We write the planning case around the results, including what the figures mean for the recommendation.