A feeling for what's best: landscape aesthetics and notions of appropriate residential architecture in Dartmoor National Park, England

In England's national parks, the design of new dwellings represents a significant and contested part of landscape planning, inseparable from park conservation ideologies and policies. Within public discourse, new housing proposals can be praised for enhancing the landscape or decried for destro...

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Main Authors: Tatum, Kirsten, Porter, Nicole, Hale, Jonathan
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47255/
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author Tatum, Kirsten
Porter, Nicole
Hale, Jonathan
author_facet Tatum, Kirsten
Porter, Nicole
Hale, Jonathan
author_sort Tatum, Kirsten
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description In England's national parks, the design of new dwellings represents a significant and contested part of landscape planning, inseparable from park conservation ideologies and policies. Within public discourse, new housing proposals can be praised for enhancing the landscape or decried for destroying it, while the decisions of planning authorities legitimise or marginalise different points-of-view. Set in Dartmoor National Park, this paper explores the competing aesthetic interpretations of landscape and the rural as represented within the design and planning of two separate residential sites that were redeveloped between 1998 and 2008. Discourse analysis of interviews (with architects, planners and clients), policies, and written accounts (planning applications and associated correspondence) investigates the positions of various stakeholders in response to these housing projects and to their protected rural landscape settings. Results reveal how notions of landscape context and aesthetics vary across different stakeholder groups, with design quality, sympathetic scale and landscape enhancement proving to be key areas of contention. Differing interpretations of national park planning policy, the problematic nature of communicating and judging qualitative aspects of ‘contemporary’ architecture, and the ongoing emphasis on visual aspects of landscape aesthetics mean that incorporating new housing design within national park landscapes remains challenging.
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spelling nottingham-472552020-05-04T19:20:03Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47255/ A feeling for what's best: landscape aesthetics and notions of appropriate residential architecture in Dartmoor National Park, England Tatum, Kirsten Porter, Nicole Hale, Jonathan In England's national parks, the design of new dwellings represents a significant and contested part of landscape planning, inseparable from park conservation ideologies and policies. Within public discourse, new housing proposals can be praised for enhancing the landscape or decried for destroying it, while the decisions of planning authorities legitimise or marginalise different points-of-view. Set in Dartmoor National Park, this paper explores the competing aesthetic interpretations of landscape and the rural as represented within the design and planning of two separate residential sites that were redeveloped between 1998 and 2008. Discourse analysis of interviews (with architects, planners and clients), policies, and written accounts (planning applications and associated correspondence) investigates the positions of various stakeholders in response to these housing projects and to their protected rural landscape settings. Results reveal how notions of landscape context and aesthetics vary across different stakeholder groups, with design quality, sympathetic scale and landscape enhancement proving to be key areas of contention. Differing interpretations of national park planning policy, the problematic nature of communicating and judging qualitative aspects of ‘contemporary’ architecture, and the ongoing emphasis on visual aspects of landscape aesthetics mean that incorporating new housing design within national park landscapes remains challenging. Elsevier 2017-11-30 Article PeerReviewed Tatum, Kirsten, Porter, Nicole and Hale, Jonathan (2017) A feeling for what's best: landscape aesthetics and notions of appropriate residential architecture in Dartmoor National Park, England. Journal of Rural Studies, 56 . pp. 167-179. ISSN 0743-0167 National parks; Planning; Housing; Architecture; Landscape aesthetics http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0743016717309749 doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.09.013 doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.09.013
spellingShingle National parks; Planning; Housing; Architecture; Landscape aesthetics
Tatum, Kirsten
Porter, Nicole
Hale, Jonathan
A feeling for what's best: landscape aesthetics and notions of appropriate residential architecture in Dartmoor National Park, England
title A feeling for what's best: landscape aesthetics and notions of appropriate residential architecture in Dartmoor National Park, England
title_full A feeling for what's best: landscape aesthetics and notions of appropriate residential architecture in Dartmoor National Park, England
title_fullStr A feeling for what's best: landscape aesthetics and notions of appropriate residential architecture in Dartmoor National Park, England
title_full_unstemmed A feeling for what's best: landscape aesthetics and notions of appropriate residential architecture in Dartmoor National Park, England
title_short A feeling for what's best: landscape aesthetics and notions of appropriate residential architecture in Dartmoor National Park, England
title_sort feeling for what's best: landscape aesthetics and notions of appropriate residential architecture in dartmoor national park, england
topic National parks; Planning; Housing; Architecture; Landscape aesthetics
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47255/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47255/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47255/