Simon Unwin reports that all is not lost in the fight against upvc replacement windows. uPVC WINDOWS IN CONSERVATION AREAS The RIBA recently sent a copy of its ideas for environmentalreform to Prince Charles. In it it refers to the damage being done to conservation areas by the installation of upvc windows. Prince Charles is an enthusiastic supporter of garden villages, some of which are conservation areas,and most of which are suffering very badly from insensitive window replacements. A small victory has been won in the fight against the defacement caused to conservation areas by modern window replacements. In an appeal decision relating to Rhiwbina Garden Village conservation area on the outskirts of Cardiff, a Welsh Office planning inspector .has ruled that window repairs and replacements must be exact replicas of the originals. Rhiwbina Garden Village, designed originally in typical garden village style by Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin in 1912, was run as a co-operative housing company until the late 1960s when the houses were sold off, mainly to sitting tenants. In the mid 1970s it was identified as a conservation area, but this status did not prevent owner occupiers keen to improve their properties, and suffering the high pressure sales techniques of the replacement window manufacturers, from fitting double glazing which gradually diluted the character of the village. The problem was officially recognised in June 1989 when Cardiff City Council, with the support of the Welsh Office, imposed an Article 4 Direction making, amongst other things, the replacement of windows subject to planning approval, something which conservation area status CONTEXT 29 alone does not do. later in 1989 one resident put in an application for planning permission to replace his windows with upvc doubleglazing units fitted with plastics strip inserts to give the superficial appearance of the original small-paned windows. As is normal procedure, this application was submitted to the Rhiwbina Garden Village Conservation Area Advisory Group for its comments. There was heated debate about whether such modern window replacements were close enough in appearance to the originals not to damage the architectural character of the houses. The group concluded that enough damage had already been done (ie before the Article 4 Direction had come into force), and advised the city council that future policy should insist that all further window replacements should match the originals exactly. Planning permission was refused, and the applicant appealed to the Welsh Office. The inspector's decision was announced in September 1990. He refused the appeal, concluding that the proposed windows would "neither preserve or enhance the conservation area". In explaining the decision, he said that, after visiting the village, "it appeared to me that whatever the individual style all the double-glazed units of this type are very clearly recogniseable as replacements of the original windows. They seem to me different in three ways. First there is a reflection off the whole of the large pane of glass compared to the reflection off the small individual panes of the originals. Second, in many cases it appeared that the inset bars in the replacement windows are narrower than those in the originals. Third, the bars in the replacements have a flat appearance compared with the relief aspect of the wooden glazing bars in the originals and the shadows they cast". He further said that in his opinion the advantages of double-glazing could easily be secured without resort to removal of the original windows. He also explained that he recognised the importance of the proportions of the original windows, and their relationship to the proportions of the elevations as a whole. The decision is welcome to all those who have recognised the defacement caused to the integrity of early 20th century planned housing developments by replacement windows. It is hoped that the lesson established in Rhiwbina will be learnt in other areas too. The applicant had also applied for permission to replace his natural slate roof with artificial slates, which would necessarily have been different in size to the original. Despite protest from the conservation advisory group, Cardiff City Council had actually approved this part of the application. The inspector, however, in determining the appeal, overturned this decision, insisting that the roof should be renewed in natural slate to match exactly the adjoining properties. Dr Simon Unwin is a lecturer in the Welsh School of Architecture, University of Wales, Cardiff. His research into the present state of garden villages in Wales is being funded by the Welsh Office in memory of Edward Hubbard, architectural historian, collaborator with Nikolaus Pevsner, and author of the Clwyd volume of the Buildings of Wales series, who died on 29 May 1989. 5
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