Having spent many years not only designing projects for Clients but also assisting them to assess the commercial viability of a proposal we concluded that we were capable of promoting and carrying through a development entirely on our own.
Part of this confidence was taken from the fact that it was often our design initiative that created the added value that makes the difference as to whether a scheme stacks up financially for a developer.
Consequently we spent £125,000 of our own money to buy a piece of land at auction in Sheffield without the benefit of a Planning Approval, confident in our own ability to maximise the potential of the site.
The site was in an existing area of established late 19thcentury terraced housing where the distance between the rear of properties adjoin streets was below the minimum dimension required by planners for habitable rooms to face each. By carefully designing the layout of our houses we were able to provide windows in side walls at the rear creating a diagonal sight line in excess of the minimum dimensions. This enabled us to secure permission for 8 Houses on the site instead of the immediate obvious solution which would have only created 4 properties, thus again maximising the potential and benefit of the site, and providing an innovative design solution.
