Agricultural Building Design

Many people tend to take a dim view of change in the countryside preferring (and often expecting) everything to remain the same, but the truth is rural landscapes are always changing often as a result of changing farm practices which include the introduction of modern agricultural buildings.

Agricultural building designs tend to be the same all over the country dominated by steel frame construction and standardised cladding materials. This standardisation can lead to a loss of local distinctiveness leaving one rural landscape looking very much like another. There is a compromise and this is to strive for functional well-designed agricultural buildings which harmonise with the surrounding countryside rather than drawing focus from it. In planning terms the success of an application may not simply be a matter of what the agricultural building looks like but how its position on the farm relates to its wider landscape setting.

The position of new farm buildings is usually dependant on their function and the space available this together with scale and appearance often means agricultural buildings become a prominent feature in the rural landscape. For this reason local authorities feel more comfortable supporting planning applications where proposals for agricultural buildings take into consideration their view on approach, the natural topography of the site and the position of existing landscaping which may offer natural screening to the development.

The roofs of new agricultural buildings can have significant visual impact especially where there are elevated views of the site. Roof materials on new agricultural buildings should therefore be dark wherever practical with a non-reflective finish. Cladding colours need to take cues from the landscape in particular where buildings are located within National Parks and AONB's, you tend to find these areas will have specific colour schemes that have to be adhered to. Pale or white buildings will obviously reflect more sunlight meaning they are much more prominent within the landscape, if a building has to be light coloured to reduce internal temperatures then careful siting and the introduction of new landscaping will be an important planning consideration.

Where the scale of development is a key planning issue it may be that a group of smaller buildings would be preferable over one large building or if this is not feasible the large building could be designed to look like a close knit group of individual buildings by staggering the façade or roofscape. Careful use of different external materials may also help break up the mass of large buildings.

When seen from a distance it is not always the siting of a building which is apparent but the buildings scale in relation to adjacent buildings. Clusters of buildings are typical of rural landscapes and will therefore look more settled than scattered standalone developments. Isolated buildings, especially in open countryside locations, can be very prominent with visual impact difficult to mitigate. Existing buildings can be used to screen new development, extensions to existing buildings can also be visually less jarring than new developments which expand into open countryside.