I do think we need to rethink what is architecturally jarring if HP adoption is going to be widespread which would be helped by the manufactures rethinking the beige box design.  On this one the faux lych framed entrance is, to my eye at least, more jarring than the HP which to be fair, the installation is quite neat and tidy. If this is facing a public road, how on earth did planning pass this?

I have mixed feelings here. I agree that the trunking looks awful on what is otherwise a fairly pretty looking building. I don't personally find the framed entrance distasteful but it certainly does stand out as one of several modern additions to what appears to be an older building.

It is obvious to me that the lower wall of the extension on the left hand side is a recent addition using a different brick bond style and not particularly well matched bricks. The windows on the far right hand side are obviously new UPVC or similar double glazed units which is rather incongruous and they are also set into a wall extension that's badly matched to the older wall. Given these amendments to the building got past the planning department, it's obviously not a listed building or in a sensitive area so I can easily understand why the heat pump would have been accepted.

What I find a little more difficult to understand is that there is a black drainpipe already sitting right next to the heat pump. I can understand there might be internal routing issues making it impractical but my preference as the home owner would have been if possible to get the trunking going up next to the drainpipe so as to disguise the former. It certainly doesn't feel like the best thought-out piece of work even if, as @abernyte says, it's been done tidily.

The answer is litterally around the corner.... There is some space there and placing the HP thare would show a smaller profile. In addition, the trunking could have gone on and through the side-wall so avoiding this eye-sore.

It is no terrible, but plastering piping on the facade could have easily been avoided.

And why the piping in a 90 degree angle? It wild have been much, much better if it had ran close and parallel to the slope of the framed entrance. Inexplicable but for lazyness.

Personally I don't have a problem with the heat pump itself.  Juxtaposition of new and old is commonplace in architecture and commonplace in the real world.  How many cars do you see parked, for most of the time, outside 16th century properties (and how does that compare to the number of times you see horses outside the same properties?).  Nor do I have a problem with people proudly displaying their heat pump.  Whether you like it or not its generally considered a done deal for people proudly to display their cars, a heat pump should surely be considered much more acceptable!.  Frequent architectural practice with modern extensions is to make them very different, so that the original and new can be readily distinguished.  Again that's OK with me.

The trunking is another matter however.  As a general rule I hate trunking internally or externally, because its so obviously a lazy job.  If forced to use it then I will generally make it an architectural feature.  This might mean extending it beyond the 'utility' length, painting it or otherwise making it look as if its meant to be there and part of a reasonably coherent building design.  This does none of these.

In this case I would have suggested running the trunking parallel to the drainpipe just round the corner (albeit that this might make a more difficult house entry, straight up on the front elevation very near the corner (so it looks like a downpipe), straight into the porch then up, or up an internal wall (with the trunking going from floor to ceiling even if the pipe doesn't.  Basically almost anything other than what has been done.  If this were suggested for my house I would resist it very strongly. 

I'm not too bothered by this.  However, if the ASHP is facing out onto the highway planning permission would be required and as I live in a conservation area planning permission would be denied.

Posted by: @jamespa

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I would have suggested running the trunking parallel to the drainpipe just round the corner

I agree.
A second black downpipe next to the one around the corner would've looked less conspicuous.
The flow, return and electrical supply could all be housed within a 110mm pipe.

If the joists ran left to right, then the pipes could've entered the house in the ground-floor ceiling void and travelled horizontally to the position above the oak porch,

Just what is the bright copper 22mm pipe for?
And what's that silver cone-shaped object at head-level?

Am I looking at a safety/expansion pipe from a pressurised water cylinder?

I hope that cone isn't covering a tundish positioned externally!

@transparent, I believe the cone-shaped object is a light, and I believe I can just about make out one on the other side too. No idea on the copper pipe, though.