Practices’ projects are latest additions to seven-strong 2022 shortlist
A barn conversion in West Sussex by Sandy Rendel Architects and a retrofitted mews house in west London have become the latest projects to make it to the final stage of the RIBA House of the Year 2022 Awards.
The architects’ regional-award winning projects were longlisted for the best-home accolade in July, along with 18 other contenders. They now join houses by David Kohn Architects and RX Architects on the shortlist, which will grow to seven projects over the next two weeks.
Sandy Rendel’s Dutch Barn at Morlands Farm, near Henfield, turned a 1930s agricultural building into a contemporary family home that retains the character of the original structure.
RIBA judges said in their citation that the architect’s careful detailing and research into materials had kept the feel of the original “black wrinkly tin” barn, while the large, abstractly-positioned windows gave a contemporary look that reflected the way such barns “are patched and change over time”.
Dutch Barn is located within the 3ha Sussex Prairie Garden attraction, which was created by the project clients. Bedrooms and an office are on the ground floor, but rough-sawn timber stairs lead up to a large single space with a great curving vaulted ceiling that follows the shape of the building’s roof. First-floor windows offer views of the gardens and the South Downs beyond.
A Corten steel viewing tower next to the home allows visitors to the garden to enjoy elevated views during opening hours. A short bridge connects the barn with the tower, meaning it can also serve as a secluded private terrace after the attraction has closed.
Mews House Deep Retrofit, by Prewett Bizley Architects, saw an existing end-terrace property transformed from a draughty and energy-hungry house into a low-energy, highly sustainable home.
The property was completely stripped out, allowing the external fabric’s thermal performance to be significantly upgraded. Walls were lined with moisture-permeable insulating plaster and new sash-and-case windows were installed, using efficient framing and evacuated glass.
RIBA judges said the project had extensively refurbished the house, reduced its carbon footprint, and enhanced its local conservation-area setting, while its interior spaces were “boldly and confidently” reworked.
“The vertical circulation has been relocated to the darkest corner of the plan, replaced by a beautifully conceived and detailed timber staircase,” they said. “It connects the three levels of accommodation, lit from above by a new roof light that allows light to penetrate all the way to the ground floor.”
Judges said the all-electric home, which has heating provided by air-source heat pump, demonstrated an 82% reduction in energy consumption during its first year of occupation. They added that the project’s operational carbon was low enough to give a three-year payback on the embodied carbon.
“The building’s clear and simple reconfiguration, along with its carefully specified and well-detailed fabric upgrade, delivers an exemplary family home with outstanding energy efficiency,” judges said.
Sandy Rendell and Prewett Bizley’s addition to the shortlist was announced as part of Channel 4’s Grand Designs House of the Year 2022 programme last night. Two more shortlisted projects will be confirmed next week, along with a seventh finalist on 7 December – when the winner will also be revealed.
Alison Brooks Architects won last year’s award for the practice’s House on the Hill project in rural Gloucestershire.
Full longlist: RIBA House of the Year 2022
:: Derwent Valley Villa, Derbyshire, by Blee Halligan
:: House at Lough Beg, Northern Ireland, by McGonigle McGrath
:: Leyton House, London, by McMahon Architecture
:: Mere House, Cambridgeshire, by Mole Architects
:: Mews House Deep Retrofit, London, by Prewett Bizley Architects
:: Mountain View, London, by CAN
:: Norfolk Barn, Norfolk, by 31/44 Architects and Taylor Made Space
:: Ostro Passivhaus, Scotland, by Paper Igloo
:: Peeking house, London, by Fletcher Crane Architects
:: Ravine House, Derbyshire, by Chiles Evans & Care Architects
:: Seabreeze, East Sussex, by RX Architects
:: Suffolk Cottage, Suffolk, by Haysom Ward Miller Architects
:: Surbiton Springs, London, by Surman Weston
:: The Cowshed, Dorset, by Crawshaw Architects
:: The Den, Scotland, by Technique Architecture and Design in collaboration with Stallan-Brand
:: The Dutch Barn, West Sussex, by Sandy Rendel Architects
:: The Garden Studio, Norfolk, by Brisco Loran and James Alder Architects
:: The Library House, London, by Macdonald Wright Architects
:: The Parchment Works, Northamptonshire, by Will Gamble Architects
:: The Red House, Dorset, by David Kohn Architects
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