‘Towards a New Vernacular’ is a Countryside Agency document aimed at promoting high quality and sustainable new development in the countryside. It is part of the Countryside Agency initiative for revitalising rural areas. The report sets out six key principles for sustainable development in rural areas, they are:

• Energy
• Materials
• Flexibility
• Quality
• Environment
• Community

The fifth principle regarding the environment states that ‘new development should seek to enhance the landscape, local character and natural ecosystem….’ This is expanded and the document states that new development should be sympathetic to existing land form, settlement pattern and individual buildings.

Towards a New Vernacular has an overarching theme of trying to create development that is ‘good enough to approve’ and strongly promotes development which reconnects to the local landscape through design, materials and construction. Development should enhance the local character and respect the existing context; the landscape is an important part of this context.

• Towards a New Venacular (1 MB)
  Download a detailed report on the development and justification of the New Vernacular approach