RIBA’ Shortlist for Manser Medal Best New House in Britain Revealed!

RIBA’ Shortlist for Manser Medal Best New House in Britain Revealed!

This year’s RIBA Manser Medal Shortlist have been revealed to include six houses each with a special characteristic that make it unique. The winner will be announced at the RIBA Stirling Prize dinner in October 2014.

The RIBA Manser Medal is awarded every year to the best new house designed by an architect in the UK. It was created in 2001 to celebrate excellence in housing design and was named to honour Michael Manser CBE, a designer of exceptional homes and former RIBA President.

Here are the six nominees according to the RIBA website :

1-Lens House

Architect : Alison Brooks Architects
Client : Private
Awards Won : London Award And National Award
Contractor : EBCO
Structural Engineer : Michael Baigent Orla Kelly
Consultant :  RHB Partnership
Cost : Confidential
Photographer : Paul Riddle

This project involved the remodeling and extension of a four storey semi​ detached Victorian Villa in theCanonbury Conservation area.The brief was to restore the derelict villa and extend it to create a family home and office space for its clients. The project has been realized in three phases over six years. The design takes into account the constraints and challenges of working within a conservation area and the proximity of a TPO’d walnut tree. The architects devised a strategy where the house and the new extension create a modern adaptable home.

2- Luker House

Architect : Jamie Fobert Architects
Client : Private
Awards Won : RIBA National And RIBA Regional Awards
Contractor : REM Projects
Photographer : Olivier Hess

This beautiful house is an essay in how to transform a totally unpromising site into something poetic and memorable. Sited in backlands with the prospect of new development overlooking the site, the design makes a benefit of developing a one-sided relationship to a sequence of external spaces.

3-The Kench, Hampshire

Architect : John Young & Meloy Architects
Client : Confidential
Awards Won : Regional
Contractor : M J Hayward
Cost : Confidential
Photographer : Jim Stephenson (CLICKCLICKJIM)

This beautifully detailed little summer house sets a new standard for construction quality and finish. The modest building has been carefully planned due to maximum floor space restrictions; the designer is forced to become more creative with their space saving solutions. It is a good example of how to make the best possible use of a limited area.

4- Stormy Castle

Architect : Loyn & Co
Client : Private Client
Awards Won : Welsh Architecture Award And Client Of The Year
Contractor : Dawnus Construction Ltd
Cost : £1,800,000
Photographer : Charles Hosea

Stormy Castle is a contemporary private house in an area of outstanding natural beauty on a hillside on the Gower peninsula.  The client, a local couple who know the area well, had always wanted to build something which reflected the quality of the surroundings and, conversely, made the most of the site in terms of views, landscape design and topography.

5-Cliff House

Architect : Dualchas Architects
Client : Private
Awards Won : RIBA National Award And Manser Medal Shortlist
Photgrapher : Andrew Nickolls

Set on the edge of a steep escarpment, with its entrance elevation cut into the hillside itself, the house commands a panoramic view over Loch Dunvegan and distant views to the north east. This house is a deceptively simple response to a unique island setting. Combining both shelter and drama, it is both respectful of its special location and a superb contemporary dwelling for its inhabitants.

6- House No 7

Architect : Denizen Works
Client : Private
Awards Won : RIBA National Award And Manser Medal Shortlist
Photographer : David Barbour

This restoration and extension of a ruined, B-listed, Tiree black-house effectively provides two houses within a single curtilage. The extensions follow the spirit of local agricultural buildings in their materials, roof forms and particularly in the use of corrugated cladding. The tradition of reconstructing Hebridean black-houses with black tarred roofing, rather than their original thatched roofs (held down by stone weighted netting), is sufficiently long established to have become an alternative local vernacular. This approach, allied to the utilitarian agricultural appearance of the extensions, creates an external form that is both contextual and appropriate.