The London Borough of Kensington recently announced a review of its basement policy. Simon Barnes comments:
I believe this review is a great idea and not before time. Developers and builders have become swept away by the thought of making excessive profits through creating basements, based on this obsession with ‘square footage’.
A desire to enhance the square footage of the house believing this will greatly enhance the value is misguided. Squash courts located in a newly created basement going under the garden are practical and with purpose; creating vast basements, or double or even triple deep basements are not because in reality much of this space will not be used and a house then becomes divided by useable space and simply redundant space.
Creating additional volume on the ground floor which is more likely to be used, inhabited and enjoyed is a far better solution for expanding a home.
Of course, basements, when well designed and cleverly lit can work really well as playrooms, studios, games rooms, extra entertaining space and even kitchens; the key to making them work is to plan in advance what you want the subterranean space to function as and how it will work in real practical terms. Digging down simply on a mission to add additional square footage can be a mistake.