Grade II Listed Building Conversion into 8 luxury flats
This spectacular 1866 period building had been used as a recreation centre for young people in Merstham and Redhill areas. The design proposal is to provide new and modern apartments whilst preserving the historic value and Heritage importance.
The project comprises the conversion of this fantastic building into 8 luxury apartments together with the construction of 14 new dwelling houses around the site. The spectacular location is surrounded by a significant number of matures trees which increases the appeal and environmental relevance of the new proposal to the locals and the region.
Listed buildings were to be kept, preserving the value of the original construction techniques, architecture, and historic characteristic features. We worked on several possible solutions to repair and restore the existing structure to keep the original features. This building is being restored and repaired to keep the original aspects as practicable as possible, removing and replacing some parts in a careful and safe manner.
The starting point has always been to ‘preserve as found’, to retain as much of the building or asset as possible. Minimum intervention is based on the fundamental question of whether any work needs to even be carried out at all. This can be difficult as it is highly likely that the original design may fall short of requirements set out in current design standards, Codes of Practice or Building Regulations. Due to these important reasons, it has been very important to work closely together with the Heritage specialist architects and the Conservation Officers.
Oakley, Grade II listed Building case study
Coach House
The Coach House is another existing building which is a standalone Grade II Listed. It has been used for different activities. The building has been affected by a significant number of natural events which in turn have led to substantial cracking and structural instability.
The Coach House, as it is known, is in a part of the site which is surrounded by a significant number of large and mature trees. This type of trees, together with the soil conditions, have caused structural damage to the foundations. The deterioration of the structure caused some irreversible damage due to severe weather conditions.
We had to work very closely with the architects dealing with the Heritage aspects of this project as well with the Conservation Officer to find suitable repair solutions to preserve as much of the original building as possible.
After several visits, surveys, measurements, and careful structural appraisals it was sadly decided that the building is to be demolished. This is the first time we have had to make the decision to propose the demolition of a historic building. However, this will give way to a new pair of new modern semi-detached houses which will be a replica of the current building. It will provide a safe and sound living environment to new families as well as being kind to the environment reducing the number of man-hours required to restore this small but impressive building.
Oakley, Coach House Grade II case study
New Houses
The project will be completed when the construction of 14 new houses around the site is finished.
The new houses consist of a combination of detached and semi-detached houses.
All houses are two storey and will provide comfortable living space areas, with large ceilings and excellent outdoor spaces.
The roofs have been designed with a combination of timber trusses and in traditional cut and pitch timber rafters, hips, and valleys. The design allows for maximum use of the loft space in most of the units, showing a typical (cottage like) period-skeeling-details around the perimeter of each house.
It has been proposed that the construction of the house is in traditional materials with beam and block ground floors and the foundations are a combination of strip footings and piled foundations due to the encountered soil conditions during the initial soil tests carried out. The piled foundation option is the most suitable option in most cases due to the number of trees and the soil characteristics found in the ground following our investigation results.
In this project we provided structural engineering and Party Wall services.
