Date Published 30 November 2017
A quite remarkable creation inspired by the traditional oast houses of Kent has been named RIBA House of the Year 2017.
Caring Wood by James Macdonald Wright and Niall Maxwell fought off competition from six other shortlisted entries to scoop the annual prize awarded to the best new house or house extension designed by an architect in the UK.
According to the judges, the striking, sprawling country pile 'speaks of its time and place: with a contemporary design that has clear links to the rural vernacular'.
Local building crafts and traditions were used throughout the project, including handmade peg clay tiles, locally quarried ragstone and coppiced chestnut cladding. The result, said the panel, 're-imagines the English country house', with 'interlinking roofs like markers in the landscape, echoing other oast houses in the distance'.
