The UK’s diverse and celebrated landscape is a cherished resource to its owners and explorers. It provides us with an innate connection to the wild, is strongly rooted in our cultural heritage and is a great source of pride for our population. As well as this cultural value, green space is becoming increasingly recognised as a tool that promotes mental, physical and social well-being.
Now more than ever, Landscape Architecture is vital in addressing the threats to our treasured landscape as the needs of rural diversification and pressures of climate change and urbanisation grow. Specialising in sensitive and highly designated landscapes our team blends art and science to apply vision and thought to our landscapes and townscapes. We protect and enhance the distinctive features of each place whilst finding practical solutions to ensure the outside space is a sustainable fit for its users. Every project presents their unique challenges – however through our extensive and broad experience of landscape designations, design and strategic planning – our landscape team are able to approach these challenges head on, meeting the needs of both the client and the landscape.
To learn more please read through our new Landscape Architecture portfolio, “More Than Just Gardens”.
Services We Offer
- Landscape Analysis and Appraisal
- Constraints and Opportunities Plans
- Community / Stakeholder Consultation
- Development Briefs
- Statements of Significance
- Estate Strategies
- Historical Research
- Feasibility Studies and Optioneering
- Case Studies / Bench Marking
- Concept Design, Masterplanning and Urban Design
- Pre-application Support
- 3D Visualisations
- Design and Access Statements
- Supplementary Panning Documents (SPDs)
- Support to Planning Applications
- Vision Statements
- Project Risk Analysis
- Risk Assessment Drawings
- Planning Condition Discharge
- Design Codes
- Landscape Visual Analysis (LVA)
- Landscape Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA)
- Townscape Visual Impact Assessment (TVIA)
- Design Code Compliance Statements
- Allotment Strategies
- Play Strategies
- Detailed General Arrangement Drawings
- Detailed Planting Plans and Schedules
- Technical Design and Construction Drawings
- Shadow Studies
- Tender Drawings and Design Resolution
- National Building Specification (NBS)
- Management and Maintenance Plans
- Value Engineering
- Tender Appraisals
- Working Construction Drawings
- Final Construction Drawings
- Schedule of Defects Report
- Inspections
- Site Support and Design Compliance
Our Projects
Latest News
ENVIRONMENT BILL: DELIVERING A BIODIVERSITY NET GAIN
It’s now a little over a week since the Environment Bill was introduced. This includes a requirement for all new planning consents to include a condition requiring a 10% biodiversity net gain. In other words, those building need to demonstrate an uplift in biodiversity on or near the site, enhancing natural habitats to create lasting benefits both for wildlife and for people.
NPPF PARAGRAPH 80E: THE VALUE OF A COORDINATED TEAM
A Paragraph 80e project is much more than an architectural statement. It is a collective solution developed by a mix of experienced planning, architectural and landscape consultants, supported further by ecological, arboriculture and heritage information.
NPPF PARAGRAPH 80E: ACHIEVING A SIGNIFICANT LANDSCAPE ENHANCEMENT – HOW SHOULD THIS BE APPROACHED?
Achieving and evidencing a significant enhancement within the landscape as part of the P80e proposals is one of the hardest challenges and easiest to overlook. Our research has taught us that failing to provide a significant landscape enhancement is one of the most common reasons for a planning refusal.
NPPF PARAGRAPH 80E: SENSITIVITY TO THE DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LOCAL AREA – WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
A key requirement of a P80e proposal is to demonstrate the vision is sensitive to the defining characteristics of the local area. So, what are the defining characteristics?
COUNTRY HOUSE OF EXCEPTIONAL QUALITY
In the 1990s, new Government planning policy unexpectedly emerged seeking to resurrect the tradition of the English Country House. That policy, often termed ‘The Gummer Clause’ (after the then Secretary of State), has been maintained and varied many times and now finds its description at Paragraph 79 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). It is here to stay and states that isolated homes in the countryside will be permitted if the following circumstances apply:
79 e). the design is of exceptional quality, in that it:
is truly outstanding or innovative, reflecting the highest standards in architecture, and would help to raise standards of design more generally in rural areas; and
would significantly enhance its immediate setting, and be sensitive to the defining characteristics of the local area.
The challenge in meeting these policy tests is considerable. The design bar is set incredibly high in seeking to attain a scheme that is truly outstanding or innovative. Expert guidance is required. Rural Solutions is the leading national planning and landscape practice in achieving schemes that become a reality in this discrete policy area. We are unique in providing both the necessary planning and design expertise in house. Our approach is one which enables all professionals to achieve a scheme that is more than the sum of its parts – one that is truly outstanding.