The RIBA House of the Year 2018 winner and the shortlisted runners-up
The RIBA House of the Year 2018 winner and the shortlisted runners-up
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1/40 Lochside House, Scotland
Designed by HaysomWardMiller Architects, Lochside House blends so seamlessly into its surroundings you’d be hard pushed to find it with a map. Crafted from burnt Scottish larch cladding and drystone walls, from afar it looks like a community of sheds has somehow emerged from the ground.
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2/40 Lochside House, Scotland
In fact, the house is formed of three finely-crafted buildings huddled together. The roofing echoes the mountains and the walls pick up the horizontal sediments of the rocks.
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3/40 Lochside House, Scotland
Owner Michelle, a ceramic artist, is inspired by nature and drawn to the freedom of empty, barren places.
"I fell in love with the Scottish Highlands on a camping trip after university and dreamt one day of renovating or building a place to live and work,” she said. She now works from this studio on the site.Riba
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4/40 Lochside House, Scotland
Everything had to be designed to be small enough to fit on the back of a trailer and driven down the long, off-road track that leads to the site. Services were unable to reach it, so Lochside House is powered by the sun and water is pulled up through a borehole.
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5/40 Lochside House, Scotland
Inside, it is pared-back and beautiful, dominated by white oil timber and rough textured plaster.
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6/40 Lochside House, Scotland
The delightfully modest rooms are entirely livable and everything flows naturally.
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7/40 Lochside House, Scotland
The changing height of the ceiling helps designate the different spaces.
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8/40 Lochside House, Scotland
The view of the lake from the master bedroom is simply magical.
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9/40 Lochside House, Scotland
The Royal Institute of British Architects judges loved the choice of materials and respectful integration of Lochside House into its wild setting. Ben Derbyshire, RIBA president, described it as "truly breathtaking".
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10/40 Lochside House, Scotland
"Every detail has been fine-tuned to create an exceptional home and studio that meets the needs and wishes of its artist owner. Lochside House is the perfect addition to this dream landscape," he said.
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11/40 The Makers House, Hackney
This four-bedroom new-build earned its name from the architects' commitment to hand-assembled materials and bespoke detailing. Found within a short stroll of Victoria Park Village in Hackney, east London, it sits respectfully between its mid-Victorian neighbours, echoing their overhanging roofs.
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12/40 The Makers House, Hackney
It instantly wows with its lovingly-crafted interior. Spread over four storeys, the lower floors have a multi-level layout that cleverly designates different functions to the light-filled living space without breaking the flow. Exposed joists, exposed brickwork and even netting give a unique feel to the room.
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13/40 The Makers House, Hackney
The petrol blue kitchen has been hand-built and three pivoting glass doors, two full-height, open onto a courtyard garden. Stairs lead down to the basement, where there is a cosy snug, larder and utility room.
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14/40 The Makers House, Hackney
Upstairs, big, naturally-lit landings are designed for displaying art. The master bedroom suite at the rear has its own study and dressing room. The Rhodesian mahogany parquet flooring, reclaimed from Hove Fire Station in the Seventies, is a special highlight.
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15/40 The Makers House, Hackney
A huge textured wall in the master bedroom slides to reveal a fabulous open-plan bathroom.
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16/40 Vex, Stoke Newington
Experimental Vex in Stoke Newington is based on "Vexations” by French composer Erik Satie, a piano piece that repeats 840 times and can take up to 24 hours to perform.
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17/40 Vex, Stoke Newington
Built from curved fluted concrete, it comprises three large, stacked drums each housing a different function.
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18/40 Vex, Stoke Newington
Inside, there’s a lower level studio space with two bedrooms above it, an open-plan living room and kitchen above that and a roof terrace on top.
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19/40 Vex, Stoke Newington
The concrete had to be poured in one continuous circle, meaning the builders had to get it right first time, or pull it down and start again. They succeeded, and it is monumental and majestic to look at.
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20/40 Vex, Stoke Newington
The RIBA judges admired how raw and decorative, Brutalist and frilly this building is both outside and in.
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21/40 Old Shed New House, North Yorkshire
Old Shed New House in North Yorkshire balances the grand and the intimate in a "part country cottage, part classical villa”.
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22/40 Old Shed New House, North Yorkshire
The owners of this three-bedroom dwelling had been looking for a peaceful site on which to build their retirement home, before stumbling upon a farm shed at the edge of a small village.
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23/40 Old Shed New House, North Yorkshire
They hired their architect son Greg and asked him to pull the landscape into the building’s form, blurring the lines between outside and in. Knowing his parents’ love of books, Greg built the house around a tall, mirrored library.
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24/40 Old Shed New House, North Yorkshire
Elsewhere, the colour scheme centres on calming grey tones, concrete and white-shaded timber.
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25/40 Old Shed New House, North Yorkshire
The facade also speaks to nature, the combination of larch cladding and galvanised steel creating a rhythmic effect that echoes the bark of the surrounding silver birch trees.
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26/40 Coastal House, South Devon
The RIBA judges were impressed by the "elegant restraint” displayed in the modern transformation of this early 20th-century house.
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27/40 Coastal House, South Devon
Much of its original structure has been retained, with an added layer of external insulation and a new facade of reclaimed slate.
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28/40 Coastal House, South Devon
Inside is where the wows really start, dominated by a fabulous winding timber staircase that rises through a three-storey top-lit atrium to create a series of internal balconies and terraces.
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29/40 Coastal House, South Devon
The ground floor has been dropped to connect to the outside, with the existing windows widened to make the public rooms feel grander.
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30/40 Coastal House, South Devon
Breathtaking coastal views add to the sense of soothing calm that pervades this splendid and historically-respectful new home.
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31/40 Red House, East Dulwich
Red House in East Dulwich, in south-east London, stands out for its success in playfully asserting itself as a modern building in a row of period conversions.
Charles Hosea
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32/40 Red House, East Dulwich
Described by Grand Designs: House of the Year presenter Kevin as a "cheeky rebel", it was built from the same red bricks used as accent bricks in the existing terrace.
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33/40 Red House, East Dulwich
The patterned, tiled thresholds of the surrounding homes are echoed in the stunning, intricately-patterned section of facade that cost £15,000 to make and sits above an arched window.
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34/40 Red House, East Dulwich
Inside, a double-height hallway leads into a split-level, three-storey home offering nearly 1,500sq ft of living space.
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35/40 Red House, East Dulwich
The team from 31/44 Architects were faced with complex geometry due to a kink in the road and the angled side of the next-door house. They conquered this obstacle by designing an unconventional, sunken ground floor. Overall, Red House cost less than £500,000 to build.
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36/40 Pheasants, Henley
Modernist riverside home Pheasants caused uproar with local residents in traditional Henley in Oxfordshire.
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37/40 Pheasants, Henley
Its owners faced a titanic struggle to win planning permission, meaning their passion project took more than a decade to complete.
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38/40 Pheasants, Henley
Designed by Sarah Griffiths and Amin Taha, this house challenges convention at every turn, from the concrete that seemingly defies gravity to the beautiful perforated Corten steel ribbon that hugs the ground floor living space.
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39/40 Pheasants, Henley
The oversized reflecting pool in the garden adds an elegant, luxurious touch that highlights the ambitious architecture...
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40/40 Pheasants, Henley
...while the interiors are full of top-light with dramatic panoramic views.
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A remote, off-grid crofter’s house in the Scottish Highlands has been named RIBA House of the Year 2018.
Lochside House, a humble, sustainable home embedded in a beautiful rugged landscape on the edge of a glassy lake, saw off stiff competition from six other shortlisted new-builds designed by architects around the UK.
It was announced as the winner during the final episode of Grand Designs: House of the Year on Wednesday night by presenter Kevin McCloud, who has been touring the country to explore the 20 houses longlisted by the Royal Institute of British Architects during a four-part Channel 4 series.
Designed by HaysomWardMiller Architects, Lochside House blends so seamlessly into its surroundings you’d be hard pushed to find it with a map. Crafted from burnt Scottish larch cladding and drystone walls, from afar it looks like little more than a community of sheds that has somehow emerged from the ground
In fact, the house is formed of three finely-crafted buildings huddled together. The roofing echoes the mountains and the walls pick up the horizontal sediments of the rocks.
Owner Michelle, a ceramic artist, is inspired by nature and drawn to the freedom of empty, barren places.
“I fell in love with the Scottish Highlands on a camping trip after university and dreamt one day of renovating or building a place to live and work,” she said.
“When I stumbled across the site in 2010 I knew immediately that I’d found the perfect spot and the process since then has been incredibly exciting. I was so lucky to find an architect who shared my sense of the importance of the place and am delighted that the final result – my home – does justice to its magical setting.”
Everything had to be designed to be small enough to fit on the back of a trailer and driven down the long, off-road track that leads to the site. Services were unable to reach it, so Lochside House is powered by the sun and water is pulled up through a borehole.
Inside, it is pared-back and beautiful, dominated by white oil timber and rough textured plaster. The delightfully modest rooms are entirely liveable and everything flows naturally. The changing height of the ceiling helps designate the different spaces and the view of the lake from the master bedroom is magical.
The RIBA judges loved the choice of materials and respectful integration of Lochside House into its wild setting. Ben Derbyshire, RIBA president, described it as “truly breathtaking”.
“By containing its scale, sensitively positioning the crop of buildings on a promontory around established trees, and making use of local materials, HaysomWardMiller have created a home which perfectly responds to its exposed, unique location,” he said.
“With a highly sustainable, off-grid approach to energy and water, it leaves the surrounding environment as undisturbed as possible. Every detail has been fine-tuned to create an exceptional home and studio that meets the needs and wishes of its artist owner. Lochside House is the perfect addition to this dream landscape.”
McCloud fully supported the judges’ decision. “This building has been tailored to its site. It’s been stitched and woven…seamed into the tapestry of this place and it is so much the better for it,” he said. “It’s the kind of architecture that we can all easily love, the kind of architecture we can all easily learn from; and it’s a way of building that we, in Britain, are getting really very good at.”
THE RUNNERS-UP...
The shortlisted houses who just missed out on the top prize were:
Red House by 31/44 Architects, a "rebellious" end-of-terrace home in East Dulwich
Pheasantsby Sarah Griffiths+ Amin Taha, a controversial glass and steel residence in Henley
Old Shed New House by Tonkin Liu, a farm shed turned contemporary home in New Yorkshire
Coastal House by 6a Architects, an elegantly modernised, 20th-century home in South Devon
VEXby Chance de Silva & Scanner, an experimental concrete house in Stoke Newington inspired by a 24-hour long piano piece
Lochside House by HaysomWardMiller Architects, an off-grid crofter's house in Scotland
The Makers House by Liddicoat & Goldhill, an exemplar of craftsmanship in Hackney
Previous RIBA House of the Year winners include Richard Murphy Architects for Murphy House last year, Skene Catling de la Peña for Flint House in 2015, Loyn & Co for Stormy Castle in 2014 and Carl Turner Architects for Slip House in 2013.
