A Converted Dovecote

Faced with the choice of repairing a dilapidated dovecote at the bottom of the garden with a superficial ‘face lift’, or investing more than £300,000 in a futuristic architectural ‘makeover’, most people would take the quick-fix option; but Richard Jagger had grand designs for the Grade II listed 18th century bird tower at his home near York. He wanted to restore the elegant old dovecote – complete with 880 nesting boxes in 16 tiers – and then turn it into a versatile glass and steel living space with a high-performance glazed extension, without losing the integrity of the original building.

“The dovecote had become a liability,” says Richard. “The roof was leaking and the walls were rapidly deteriorating. It would be in the best interests of the building if it could earn its keep, which would guarantee its survival. I didn’t want to ruin it by drilling huge holes into the walls to accommodate steel girders, service wires and pipes. I wanted to create something which, in another 100 years, could be dismantled without any trace of it having been there.”

Richard took his ideas to the late York architect Tom Adams, who came up with a design based on the principles of ‘soap bubble’ architecture, in which modern, usually glazed, extensions and internal structures are used to enhance and emphasise classical architecture. The Reichstag in Berlin, The Louvre in Paris and the National Centre for Early Music in York have all been developed in this way.

“To add classical extensions to these places would simply have lessened the grandeur of the original buildings,” says Richard. “The same would have happened with the dovecote. Glass, on the other hand, highlights the original structure.”

Richard and Tom worked closely with York City Council planning department and the listed building officer to achieve the renovation and extension in a way which was sympathetic to the dovecote and its surroundings. They then invited Arthur Wilson of Commercial Space Solutions near Ripon to create a CAD drawing of the project, which included two bedrooms, a bathroom and fully equipped office space in the 20-foot-high dovecote – which would cost £30,000 - plus an open plan kitchen, dining and sitting area in the glazed extension which would cost a further £75,000.

“It was a one-off project which presented quite a challenge,” says Arthur. “The space was quite tight inside the dovecote.”

During the six-month-long wait for planning permission, all the nesting spaces were cleaned with detergent so that building work could begin the minute the council gave the go-ahead. Unusually, they granted flexible planning permission so the property could be used as residential or office space.

The success of the project rested on the accuracy of the structural engineering. The three floors inside the dovecote are built in a galvanised powder-coated steel framework supported by four hollow stanchion legs. These house all the service providers, including heating, ventilation, electrics, telecommunications and plumbing, along with discreetly positioned access panels for easy maintenance.

“Nothing runs through the walls or is attached to the walls inside the dovecote,” says Richard. “The whole structure stands independently.”

Priorities included low long-term maintenance costs, low energy use and high insulation. All the pipes and wires, including the ducts for an energy-efficient heat-recovery system, have been fed underneath the concrete floor, which is insulated with polystyrene foam board. The dovecote roof is also insulated with 52mm Knauf foamboard, laminated with foil and incorporating a breathable membrane as a substitute for roofing felt. Most of the original slate tiles were reused but the cupola was in such a poor state of repair that it had to be lifted off with a crane and a new one built to the original design.

“The emphasis of the whole project was to combine sustainable, flexible use of the building with sympathetic restoration,” said architect Tom Adams before his death. “The dovecote is an early example of intensive agriculture when doves were used for their meat and eggs, and this particular building is a fine example. Each nesting box is a work of skill in its own right and we have kept those as an integral part of the restoration. I don’t know of any other dovecotes which have been renovated in this way.”

Richard wanted the internal structure to be as flexible as possible, so he included double glazed partition walls with integrated blinds between the rooms, at a cost of nearly £15,000, which could easily be removed in the future to create an open plan office space. The same applied to the high-spec extension, comprising argonfilled double glazed windows, which include laminated Suncool-coated glazing on the external leaf to reduce heat radiation in summer, and toughened low-emissivity glass on the internal leaf to reduce heat loss in winter. Reduced light transmission of more than 60 per cent keeps glare to a minimum. “Without these specifications, the glass room would have been almost impossible to live in,” says Richard. “As it is, it maintains a fairly constant temperature all year round.”

Attention to detail was crucial in the overall scheme, so leaking cast iron gutters and downpipes were replaced with powder-coated aluminium replicas; all the heating and ventilation is zoned to prevent unnecessary usage and the heat-recovery unit reuses 80 percent of the heat through an exchanger.

“Most importantly, the integrity of the design of the original dovecote remains intact and has been preserved for future generations with a sustainable economic use,” says Richard, who has been invited to submit the project for a Civic Trust Award. “And if, in 100 years time, a future owner wants to revert it back to its original use, no problem — the steel structure inside can easily be dismantled to reveal the true beauty of the original building.”

In the meantime, Richard is encouraging the building to pay for its own upkeep by renting it as a furnished let. For converters of any building it serves as a highly useful reference.