Council House Architecture
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Hi everybody.
I’m in the process of buying a council house for myself. The thing about council houses is, by their very nature, they are ‘compact’ – under 600 square feet to be precise. This is fine for a batchelor pad, but not great if you need 3 or 4 plates at dinner time. So it would be great to build an extension… and it would be great for that extension to not be a hideous behemoth slapped up by your local builder, obstructing your neighbours’ view and depriving your town of daylight (like the one about 6 doors down). Of course, the other thing about council houses is that, by their nature, the owner doesn’t have lots of disposable income to hire an architect to find a professional solution. So how to proceed?
There is another thing common to all council houses – there are lots and lots of them. Surely countless people have successfully solved this problem, but where can I see their solutions? Does a book exist with examples of council house architecture, clever use of space / materials / budget? I’ve searched google briefly but have found nothing specifically useful, does anyone have any ideas of where to look, or find themselves thinking about the same issue?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one.
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At a guess I would say that most of the extensions to council houses never had a qualified or architect’s imput into their design.
One suggestion might be to look at the planning files for houses seeking permission for extensions, you might get ideas from them/ or find someone who has a flare for designing extensions which are practical and interesting and would cost you an arm and a leg.
I know South Dublin County Council’s planning files can be viewed on-line at sdublincoco.ie
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Most extensions to these houses would be exempt from planning permission (single story, rear of house etc.) so you will not see much record of them in planning files. Also there was an “amnesty” of stuff built prior to circa ’85 so much of what was done before then was again undocumented.
What area and vintage of Council house are you looking at ?
I was through this recently and definitely reccomend using an architect. Very pleased with the designof ours (builders now – that’s another story…)
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