White Farm
Service
Conversion & New Builds on a listed site
Location
Bournemouth, Dorset
Year
2020
Design Team
Crafted Architects
Situated in Bournemouth, the site’s Conservation Area Status provided Talbot Village with the opportunity to explore a small, sympathetic development. White Farm was originally developed by the Talbot sisters in 1850 with the aim of improving employment prospects and living conditions for people with insufficient means to provide for themselves.
The client's aim was to honour the idyllic and philanthropic vision of the Talbot sisters; our task was to create an architecture that would align with this.
Our approach was to refurbish and repurpose the listed buildings, with the farmhouse as the focal point of the site, taking cues from earlier drawings showing other buildings grouped around the site, some of which had since been demolished. There was a shared purpose with the local authority to see the site brought back into use, and this, together with the intention to use the buildings to house persons with learning difficulties, inspired the team.
The central barn is to be converted into a single unit; the remaining buildings proposed are to be new, designed in a sensitive vernacular manner that is subservient to that of the rural-picturesque used for the original farmhouse. Full two-storey buildings are confined to the North-East corner of the site to minimise their impact on views in and out of the site – we created montaged views to demonstrate the impact of the proposals from specific public viewpoints and to help inform our design process. The design was granted planning permission for 12 one-bedroom units; an exceptional achievement given the site's listed setting.
