ripon apartment scheme
We were commissioned in January 2024 to develop proposals for a residential apartment scheme on one of the main approaches into Ripon city centre in North Yorkshire. The proposed site was last used as a petrol station and the single storey building that remained on site was derelict and overgrown. The previous development proposal for this tricky site was not approved and we were employed to design a viable development. The local topography is extreme, with a steep embankment at the back of the site: the adjacent properties to the west are grade II listed buildings.
Our proposed scheme was developed in response to this context with apartments to the upper floors above an undercroft parking and communal entrance area. Key considerations were the heritage impact of the new building in relation to its immediate neighbour, the visual impact of parked vehicles at the front of the site, designing individual apartments to maximise opportunities for natural light and ventilation, and repairing the street frontage.
The apartments are organised with generously proportioned living rooms facing the street at each level. The principal elevation of the new scheme is designed to be proportionally similar to the existing listed buildings and detailed in an understated, contemporary, manner. The scheme reinstates the boundary wall to the street with a raised planting area that reducing the visual impact of the communal parking area. Surface parking is minimised through the introduction of the parking undercroft which is set into the steeply rising bank. Spaces behind this are used for communal storage and the lie of the land is utilised to create a rear shared amenity and garden area at the rear of the building accessed at first floor level from the apartment circulation core and via external steps to the side of the building.
The scheme initially had a penthouse top floor, but in discussion with the local authority this has been altered to reduce the total number of apartments on site to six. The scheme was approved, subject to the completion of a Section 106 Agreement, in November 2025.