HWA objects to Orione House redevelopment

Please see below our objuection to the Orione House redevelopment application on the corner of Station Road and Lower Tedington Road.

Type of comment: Object to the proposal

Comment: I focus my objection to the proposals on two aspects of them.

Firstly, the excessive mass of the new building by comparison to the existing represents overdevelopment of the site. This will impact on its neighbours and cause a substantial loss of amenity value to them and, by its bulk, will inevitably dominate the area visually. The images on pages 6 and 7 of the Daylight and Sunlight Report demonstrate this overdevelopment. Furthermore, using the Applicants own figures (and excluding the extension to No. 23) the new building is 96% larger than the existing-that’s nearly double the floor area! It does not have a ‘similar density to the existing’ as claimed in the Design & Access Report.

Secondly, the design standard is disappointing. Essentially, it is a commercial design with a melange of ’design cues’ cut and pasted from the local vernacular, borrowed at their convenience, looking strange and incongruous. For example, there’s 70’s style patio doors to the upper floors alongside Edwardian style sliding sashes and, with a nod to the existing, a flat roofed entrance porch. Similarly, the choice of facing materials appears arbitrary – perhaps the designer was hoping to break up the mass of the building. This technique seldom works, and doesn’t here.