Office To High-End Houses
Compton, Newbury
A rural office building tested against two sketch schemes, landing on a terrace of four three-bed houses and one two-bed unit.
Feasibility In Brief
The Brief
Axis House is an office building in a village setting, and the client wanted to understand its highest-value residential future. Flats, a small number of large houses, and a terrace of family homes were all plausible, with very different values and build scopes.
What We Found
We tested two sketch proposals over the existing plans, working with the building's structural grid. The preferred scheme divides the building into four three-bed houses of around 83 sqm each plus one larger two-bed unit, using ground floor timber-frame extensions, new rear openings, dormers, and rooflights to make each house work over three floors.
Our Recommendation
The client received drawn options with elevations for the preferred scheme, a clear unit mix, and the alterations list that planning and costing conversations need. Two rounds of sketch testing settled the direction before any detailed design fees were spent.
The Proposed Layout
The preferred scheme: four three-bed houses and one two-bed unit within the existing office building.
What The Client Received
Feasibility Overview
The proposed design, planning route, key constraints, commercial position and a clear Go or No-Go recommendation.
Planning Research & Risk Analysis
Site-specific policy research, planning precedents, appeal decisions and a risk register with cost implications.
Space & Standards Review
Bedroom, amenity, ceiling-height, kitchen and facility requirements checked room by room against the design.
These are real client reports, so they are not published here.
The Decision
A clear route forward before purchase.
Two schemes tested, one taken forward. The feasibility settled on the terrace: four three-bedroom houses of around 83 sqm each and one larger two-bedroom unit, working with the existing structural grid and keeping the building within its footprint. The site's protected landscape setting rules out Class MA prior approval, so full planning was always the route, and the sketch testing meant the application could be drawn straight from the preferred scheme. The application went in in March 2026 and the project now sits under Projects as In planning.
Recommended roadmap
- 01Measured survey
- 02Pre-application advice
- 03Full planning application
- 04Technical design
- 05Tender
- 06Construction
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