Dezeen Magazine

Dezeen's top ten: planning cheats

Dezeen’s top ten: planning cheats

In the last few weeks we’ve published a few projects where architects have come up with inventive ways of getting around restrictive planning requirements. Here’s a roundup of the most popular buildings we've featured on Dezeen where disguises, moving walls and even skis have been employed to skirt around these obligations.

l House by moomoo architects

1. at the top of the list are these designs for a plastic-covered house in Poland, which feature an extra wall where the planning authorities wanted the facade to be.

Sliding House by dRMM

2. in second place is Sliding House, a glazed house that can be transformed into a typical English barn by a 50-ton mobile structure that slides over the top.

Old Workshop by Jack Woolley

3. next up, architect Jack Woolley concealed this house and workshop behind a brick wall with a secret door so that no one would notice it was there.

Las Arenas by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

4. at number four is a leisure complex inside a former bullring, where architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners were able to retain the historically sensitive facade by lifting it up off the ground.

Balmain Archive by Innovarchi

5. a copper-clad house extension comes in fifth place, after the architects got around the stipulation for a pitched roof by designed the whole building as if it were one.

Wickstead Lodge by Baynes & Co

6. number six is a house with an electronically controlled stone wall that slides across the facade to hide a large window that wouldn't otherwise have been allowed.

Denizen Sauna by Denizen Works + Friends

7. in seventh position is a sled-like sauna on skis that can be towed out onto a lake, which was constructed after the client was refused permission for a permanent structure.

House N by Sharon Neuman and Oded Stern-Meiraz

8. coming in eighth is a modern rectangular residence that hides behind a brick wall shaped like the silhouette of a gabled house.

The Round Tower by De Matos Ryan

9. this house, number nine in our countdown, was hidden underground in order to maintain sight lines towards a listed stone tower on the site.

University of Liverpool Heating Infrastructure by Levitt Bernstein

10. last but not least is an energy centre designed to look like a row of gabled houses.

See you next month for another top ten!

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