Climate Emergency Conservation Area Toolkit

Christopher Procter is a RIBA Registered Architect specialising in sustainable residential projects in conservation areas in London. He is a director of Procter-Rihl architects established since 1995 in Islington, London. The practice is known for a seminal contemporary house in Brazil, winner of a Royal Institute of British Architects worldwide category in 2005, first in South America. The building was listed after only 12 years, as a ”structure of value and spatial quality, constituting a significant element of structure in the urban context”, (Equivalent to Grade II, UK).  In 2008, the practice designed the Pull House, a project which embraced Passive House principles and Offsite Manufacturing. The project received 5 Star energy status for its sustainable features in the state of Vermont, USA. His book ‘Architecture and Beyond’, a monograph of his studio covering a series of projects, was published in 2017 and available at RIBA bookshop.
Chris was the Course Leader in Technical Studies, MA Architecture, at the Royal College of Art for 8 years (2008-2016) where he brought sustainable studies for the first time to the course. In 2011, he took the Passivhaus Design course at the Building Research Establishment (BRE). He has been an active member of ACAN since its founding in 2019, in the Existing Buildings and Planning Policy Groups.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary
London Councils  Retrofit Action Plan
1.0   Context : Introduction
1.1   Climate Emergency Declarations
1.2   Coverage Conservation Area
England and Bath Conservation Area Coverage
London Councils with high percentage of CA Coverage
1.3    Planning Policy                       
    1.3.1  English Planning Policy
    1.3.2  Local Authority Policies
1.4   Technical- Conservation Practice
    1.4.1  First Generation Designation Legislation
    1.4.2  Second Generation Appraisal Legislation- Building Audit
    1.4.3  Building Detail Element Appraisal in Practice 
1.5    Element Appraisal 
    1.5.1  Third Generation Building Elements 
2.0   Toolkit - Scope, Structure, and Worked Example
2.1    Step 1 - DESIGNATION Existing Condition
Characteristics, Boundary, Age, Article 4, & Audit achieved
2.2   Step 2 - BUILDING AUDIT Appraisal
Negative, Neutral, Positive, Listed Audit 173 Buildings 60 Shopfronts
2.3   Step 3 - BUILDING ELEMENT AUDIT Appraisal
Extend audits to building elements
2.4  Step 4 - ACTION PLAN mechanisms for change
Local Development Orders, Local Listed Building Consent Orders
2.5  Detailed Element Mapping (from  2.3)
with proposed Supplementary Planning Document guidance
    2.5.1   Roof Extensions -‘woolly hats’ mapping
    2.5.2  Projecting Features - ‘ear muff’ mapping
    2.5.3  Renewables Retrofit - solar mapping
    2.5.4  Double or triple windows- ‘lenses’ mapping
    2.5.5  External Insulation -‘woolly jumpers’ mapping 2.5.6  Shopfronts - `’leg warmers’ mapping
3.0  Appendices
3.1 Building Audits 
3.2 Shopfront Audits
3.3 Window Audits 
3.4 CA13 Proposed Guidance Document