Homes that reinvent familiar forms - Grand Designs Magazine
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5 self builds that reinvent familiar forms

These five homes from the House of the Year 2021 longlist play with traditional forms

By Victoria Purcell |

These five spectacular projects all featured on Grand Designs: House of the Year 2021 as they battled it out to win the coveted RIBA award.

Kevin McCloud, architect Damion Burrows and design expert Michelle Ogundehin toured the UK to scope out the most remarkable self-builds. One episode saw them exploring ‘homes that reinvent familiar forms’, including a reimagined oast house in Kent, extended school in Yorkshire, a contemporary take on the end-of-terrace in London, a Passivhaus in Devon, and a suburban family home in Surrey.

1. The Modern Oast, Kent

Oast houses, once used to dry hops, are common in the South East, but this Modern Oast is totally unique. In this unique new build (not a conversion, as you might expect), five shimmering towers are are made up of iridescence ceramic tiles – earthy tones at the base, fading to sky blue at the top.

The four-bedroom home reinvents a familiar form to accommodates a family with two young children. Each oast house performs a different function, linked at ground-floor level by a triple-height central roundel with spiral staircase. The kitchen and lounge room take an oast house each, along with a spare bedroom, study, bathroom and utility room. On the first floor, a double-height living room and curved landing provide access to the three bedrooms housed on the top floor ‘turrets’.

This project by ACME architects offers a clever response to a unique set of problems – ultimately, that hops dry in dark spaces while families prefer living in light spaces. The central roundel and open-plan layout of the house make sure that light floods in from all directions.

oast house grand designs house of the year 2021

Photo: Jim Stephenson

2. The Old School, Yorkshire

James Arkle, director at ArkleBoyce Architects, and his wife Gail have converted a former school near Malton in Yorkshire. They initially made basic alterations so that they could live safely in the Grade II listed building with their three boys, but wanted to completely reinvent the old schoolhouse for modern living while retaining its familiar form for passers by.

When they came to extend their home they pulled out all the stops with an 85sqm steel structure finished in coursed stonework to continue the original façade. The reconfigured downstairs includes a kitchen-diner, playroom and living room, with three bedrooms upstairs.

The project, which cost about £250,000 and has a green sedum roof and biomass boiler to boost its sustainability credentials, is a great example of how to add contemporary modifications to a listed building. 

The Old School House, Yorkshire, Grand Designs House of the Year

Photo: Nicholas Worley

These five spectacular projects all featured on Grand Designs: House of the Year 2021 as they battled it out to win the coveted RIBA award.

Kevin McCloud, architect Damion Burrows and design expert Michelle Ogundehin toured the UK to scope out the most remarkable self-builds. One episode saw them exploring ‘homes that reinvent familiar forms’, including a reimagined oast house in Kent, extended school in Yorkshire, a contemporary take on the end-of-terrace in London, a Passivhaus in Devon, and a suburban family home in Surrey.

1. The Modern Oast, Kent

Oast houses, once used to dry hops, are common in the South East, but this Modern Oast is totally unique. In this unique new build (not a conversion, as you might expect), five shimmering towers are are made up of iridescence ceramic tiles – earthy tones at the base, fading to sky blue at the top.

The four-bedroom home reinvents a familiar form to accommodates a family with two young children. Each oast house performs a different function, linked at ground-floor level by a triple-height central roundel with spiral staircase. The kitchen and lounge room take an oast house each, along with a spare bedroom, study, bathroom and utility room. On the first floor, a double-height living room and curved landing provide access to the three bedrooms housed on the top floor ‘turrets’.

This project by ACME architects offers a clever response to a unique set of problems – ultimately, that hops dry in dark spaces while families prefer living in light spaces. The central roundel and open-plan layout of the house make sure that light floods in from all directions.

oast house grand designs house of the year 2021

Photo: Jim Stephenson

2. The Old School, Yorkshire

James Arkle, director at ArkleBoyce Architects, and his wife Gail have converted a former school near Malton in Yorkshire. They initially made basic alterations so that they could live safely in the Grade II listed building with their three boys, but wanted to completely reinvent the old schoolhouse for modern living while retaining its familiar form for passers by.

When they came to extend their home they pulled out all the stops with an 85sqm steel structure finished in coursed stonework to continue the original façade. The reconfigured downstairs includes a kitchen-diner, playroom and living room, with three bedrooms upstairs.

The project, which cost about £250,000 and has a green sedum roof and biomass boiler to boost its sustainability credentials, is a great example of how to add contemporary modifications to a listed building. 

The Old School House, Yorkshire, Grand Designs House of the Year

Photo: Nicholas Worley

3. Corner House, London

In terms of homes that reinvent familiar forms, the Corner House, designed by 31/44 Architects for CASA London, is a hard one to beat. Unsurprising, then, that it made it onto the House of the Year 2021 shortlist.

The new-build end-of-terrace house was designed to reinterpret elements of its Victorian neighbours, as well as the pub opposite. The entrance, on the lower-ground floor level, sits below an angular porch canopy that mimics the neighbour’s staircase, while an arched window on the upper-ground floor echoes next door’s front door. Plus, the rounded corners of the building echo the pub over the road.

The plot in Peckham, south London, is fairly small, but inside, the home is airy and spacious, thanks in large part to the open-plan nature of the build and two courtyard spaces booking-ending either end of the lower ground-floor living space.

The first new-build development from emerging property developer Sara Mungeam, the project actually created three houses. The original end-of-terrace next door was renovated to create a garden flat and two-storey maisonette. 31/44 Architects also created Red House, another impressive end-of-terrace reinvention in south London.

corner house grand designs house of the year 2021

Photo: Rory Gardiner

4. Devon Passivhaus

A walled kitchen garden, while a beautiful feature, presented problems for this Devon Passivhaus build by McLean Quinlan. Constraints on scale were the chief problem, but the clever solution manages to disguise the house entirely, as if it’s not there at all.

The new wall could easily be the old, built in the same handmade rubbed red bricks using the same coursing and mortar. A wheelbarrow path of brick draws visitors to one of the garden’s axial doorways, with the box bay window already suggesting more than a tool shed might lie behind. Once through the door, you are in a secret home of courtyards, comfortable domestic spaces and picture-framed views.

The layout is both pragmatic, intimate and deliberately far away from the formality of the working stately garden. This clever trickery means the new home is unobtrusive in its historical setting, making it a worthy contender in the ‘homes that reinvent familiar forms’ category.

devon passivhaus grand designs house of the year 2021

Photo: Jim Stephenson

5. Weybridge House, Surrey

This light-filled five-bedroomed home houses both a family and photography studio. Wilkinson King Architects cleverly bring natural daylight deep into the home, seamlessly extending the living room into a south-facing external courtyard with wide glazing.

Handmade brickwork and the timber ceilings lend a tactile feel to the house, deftly balanced against the lightness of floor-to-ceiling glazing. In terms of eco-credentials, the inherent thermal mass of the building keeps heating and cooling demands to a minimum and deeply-recessed, south-facing glazing offers shade from the summer sun and solar gain in the winter.

The utility rooms and storage areas are neatly set into two brick-clad wings that bookend both sides of the main living space, offering privacy from the neighbours. The top floor has good-sized bedrooms and bathrooms grouped around a central stairwell.

weybridge house grand designs house of the year 2021

Photo: Sarah Hogan

Watch the House of the Year episode featuring ‘homes that reinvent familiar forms’ on All 4

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