Those designers who - like myself - should have been put out to grass years ago may well remember the introduction of the first national Building Regulations in 1965:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Building+Regulations+1965&i
It makes a fascinating read (if you are into pain!) and shows how much building and regulations have changed in the last 50 years.
It is of course in imperial measures (no SI then) and the regs were in a very prescriptive form, unlike the modern performance standards - there was no room for debate or give-and-take; it was either pass or fail.
The default standard for deposited plans was that they should be rejected, unless they showed complete compliance with the regs. This meant that officious inspectors (and there were many) could reject even the most detailed plans on the smallest of ommissions if they were in a bad mood that day.
There were no private inspectors then, and applications were free, paid for from the rates. There was no Building Notice system.
Just a few examples to show how things have changed:
* for thermal insulation of walls of a dwelling, all that was needed was a brick cavity wall, with a 2" cavity. Buildings other than dwellings had no insulation requirements.
* in a loft conversion, at least half the floor area had to be over 7'6" high (often unattainable today without building a dormer).
* there was no limit to the size of windows.
* every window to a habitable room needed to have an unobstructed 'zone of open space' outside it, which was detailed in a very specific way (this harked back to the sanitary legislation of the 19th century).
Like they say, the past is a different country.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Building+Regulations+1965&i
It makes a fascinating read (if you are into pain!) and shows how much building and regulations have changed in the last 50 years.
It is of course in imperial measures (no SI then) and the regs were in a very prescriptive form, unlike the modern performance standards - there was no room for debate or give-and-take; it was either pass or fail.
The default standard for deposited plans was that they should be rejected, unless they showed complete compliance with the regs. This meant that officious inspectors (and there were many) could reject even the most detailed plans on the smallest of ommissions if they were in a bad mood that day.
There were no private inspectors then, and applications were free, paid for from the rates. There was no Building Notice system.
Just a few examples to show how things have changed:
* for thermal insulation of walls of a dwelling, all that was needed was a brick cavity wall, with a 2" cavity. Buildings other than dwellings had no insulation requirements.
* in a loft conversion, at least half the floor area had to be over 7'6" high (often unattainable today without building a dormer).
* there was no limit to the size of windows.
* every window to a habitable room needed to have an unobstructed 'zone of open space' outside it, which was detailed in a very specific way (this harked back to the sanitary legislation of the 19th century).
Like they say, the past is a different country.
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