Prince Charles won't waive the rules in his model village

Published on Friday 7 January 2011 14:39

WELCOME to your dream home, but please, if you must insist on installing a satellite dish, kindly keep it hidden from view, and ensure your house sign errs on the side of discretion. This is, after all, a neighbourhood fit for royalty.

• Picture perfect: drawings of what Knockroon in Ayrshire, commissioned by Prince Charles, will look like.

Prospective residents of Prince Charles's bold new community in Scotland will be forced to abide by a dizzying series of rules devised to preserve the architectural purity of his vision.

Under fresh plans for Knockroon in Ayrshire, seen by Scotland on Sunday, households must accede to a series of planning regulations laid down by the prince's architectural charity.

Intricate detail of the architecture and streetscapes of the new village, near Cumnock, is outlined in a 35-page manifesto drawn up by the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment.

Covering factors ranging from walls and railings through to street "furniture", the Knockroon Design Code is presented as an "exemplar of design" for "Ayrshire, Scotland, and beyond" which will "create a beautiful place".

However, leading architectural organisations have warned the plans are too "prescriptive" in laying down the law for features as seemingly trivial as benches, with one body condemning the foundation's decision to "slavishly copy" traditional designs rather than consider a more contemporary vision. Government design champions, Architecture + Design Scotland, says it would prefer a "variety" of "architectural expression".

The genesis of the community, branded the "Scottish Poundbury" - a planned village in Dorset, set on land owned by the Prince's Duchy of Cornwall - took shape four years ago when he was the dealbreaker in the purchase of Dumfries House, an 18th-century Palladian mansion near Cumnock.

The Prince's Charitable Foundation helped buy the stately home from the Marquess of Bute to avoid a public sale, and, as part of the deal, Charles promised a new green walkable neighbourhood.

The first bricks are likely to be laid as soon as March by developers Hope Homes and Ecofirst, subject to the scheme receiving final planning consent, and the newdesign code will provide a framework of what is acceptable over the next 25 years as Knockroon gradually takes shape.

In the code, the foundation envisages a community which will be "both familiar and distinctive," drawing on the finest precedents of urban design and architecture in Ayrshire and the west of Scotland.

"Knockroon," it declares, "will be an exemplar of design quality and sustainable development for east Ayrshire, Scotland, and beyond in terms of urban extensions or new neighbourhoods."

At its heart will be Adam Square, named after the brothers who designed Dumfries House. The civic space - comprising a single supermarket, shops, offices, and housing - will be influenced by the traditional Scottish tollbooth market square.

It is, though, the future residents of Knockroon's 770 homes who should pay the greatest attention to the code. For while they will be given allotments on the Dumfries House estate, the good life in Knockroon will have a series of restrictions as the foundation lays down stipulations for the "urban ingredients" of households and gardens.

They include: garden gates must be made to an approved design from painted timber, mild steel, or wrought iron; the lettering on house name signs should be no higher than eight centimetres; individual satellite dishes will be banned in favour of "discrete" communal dishes linked to underground cabling; and hedges must be uniform in colour and species. Even on communal streets, nothing is being left to chance. The foundation rules that street name signs should be in the Baskerville typeface; tree trunks should be no closer than 900 millimetres from road kerbs; and benches must be of a predetermined traditional cast-iron design.

Hank Dittmar, chief executive officer of the foundation, said it is a "firm advocate" of community engagement, and believes the design code will be embraced by those who make a new life in Knockroon.

"The Foundation is delighted to have been involved with the design of Knockroon," he said. "It is fantastic that the vision will hopefully soon become a reality. The masterplan and design code draw upon Scottish urban design and architecture whilst advocating sustainable travel and proposing the use of low carbon technologies."

The Scottish Civic Trust - a charity that seeks to protect and enhance the built environment - welcomed the publication of the design code, but it also stressed new and old could comfortably sit side by side.

Pointing to the blueprints for Adam Square as an example, the heritage watchdog - directed by John Pelan - wrote: "We welcome the identification of ‘character areas' and their defining features, and the precedents from the surrounding area to illustrate these definitions. We do, however, feel a contemporary interpretation of these traditional forms would be most appropriate, rather than slavishly copying traditional architecture."

It added: "From this point of view, we feel that in places the design code is rather prescriptive, and there is a concern that it could stifle contemporary design solutions."

Similarly, Architecture + Design Scotland, the executive body which aims to champion excellence in architecture, has criticised "very prescriptive" guidance for street designs and building frontages. Instead, it too believes there should be a "variety of architectural expression."

It adds it "would advise against any particular style being replicated to the extent that individual developments did not display their own character and identity."

The decision whether to grant full planning consent to the first phase will be taken next week at a meeting of East Ayrshire Council's southern local planning committee.