In case you didn’t tune in to Grand Designs to see Kevin McCloud announce the Royal Institute of British Architecture (RIBA) House of the Year last night, we can now inform you that the winner is Caring Wood by James MacDonald Wright and Niall Maxwell.
Image: James Morris / RIBA
Set in ‘The Garden of England’ it evokes traditional oast houses of the county of Kent, reimagining and reviving local materials and craft processes in its eight year journey from start to finish. Locally-sourced coppiced chestnut cladding meets locally-sourced handmade peg tiles on the exterior of four towers that share interlocking roofs to create a large shared living space – ideal for the three generations of family for whom it was designed. Whilst large in volume, the interiors of this magnificent English country stack are modest with white washed walls generally meeting very honest and solid feeling oak.
Image: Heikko Prigge / Riba
Image: James Morris / RIBA
Whilst ambitious in scale, and certainly at the highest end of most budgets, this 21st century home offers a new concept for living as jury chair, Deborah Saunt, explains:
“Beyond the impression of sublime craftsmanship and spatial grandeur this house offers, Caring Wood leads us to fundamentally question how we might live together in the future.
"This is a brave project offering a new prototype. In deploying homes that cater for extended families across urban, suburban and rural sites, this may offer solutions not only to the country’s housing crisis - where families might live together longer - but also by providing care solutions for young and old alike, freeing people from punishing costs throughout their lifetimes."
You can still watch the series too - go and check out all the shortlisted houses!
