Legislative Constraints
Legislative constraints in terms of architecture refers to things that by law must or must not be done. There are many different constraints that an architect faces when designing a building but in this post I will only be referring to those enforced by law.
Firstly, one of the main legislative constraints are the building regulations. There are 17 regulations that a building must adhere to before it can be utilised. If a building fails to comply with the building regulations, then it will have to be adapted or potentially demolished. For example, regulation document B is fire safety. If during the buildings inspection, it is seen to be unsafe and not in compliance with the fire safety regulations it will have to be adapted and inspected again before it can be inhabited. Unlike with planning permission, a building is built before its inspection takes place, meaning that any faults with it will have to be corrected at potentially high costs. It is therefore advised to have plans thoroughly checked before the building is constructed.
Planning permission is a legislative constraint as no work can by law be done before the correct planning permission has been required. Permission has to be applied for and can be either accepted or rejected. Therefore the architect must always take planning permission into account when designing a building. If the application is rejected, the project may have to begin again from scratch. As well as this, applications can be accepted with conditions which must be followed. If planning applications are not submitted early enough or have conditions added to them, long delays can be caused in the construction of the building, potentially resulting in high costs.
Client demands can be a legislative constraint assuming that there is a contract involving the two parties. The contract would be agreed on by both sides and once signed, by law, it must be met. The contract could allow the architect full control over the build or it could give the client more power in terms of changing the buildings design.
The environmental protection act is defined as “An Act to make provision for the improved control of pollution arising from certain industrial and other processes” (Environmental Protection Act 1990). This act lawfully enforces the protection of the environment and can therefore have an effect on the planning or construction of a building. Sufficient site research should be carried out before construction takes place to ensure that nothing infringes the EPA.
Listed buildings are also a legislative constraint, if your working on one or have one in the context of your site. Listed buildings are protected by the law and should you damage or make alterations without permission to a listed building you will be liable for paying for the repair of the damage you have caused. Our current design project has a listed building in the context of our site. A church sits directly to the west of our site (Shown in the image below) and when I conducted a sun study I found that if a certain section of my building exceeded 10 meters in height it would cast a shadow onto the church. This could cause problems when applying for planning permission and therefore constrains the building to 10 meters.
Bibliography
Environmental Protection Act 1990 (1990) Available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/43/contents (Accessed: 5 February 2017).
Garrett, J. and Portal, P. (2015) Part B - fire safety. Available at: https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200135/approved_documents/63/part_b_-_fire_safety (Accessed: 5 February 2017).