Bold design bags prestigious award

The Royal Institute of British Architects has announced the winner of the 2014
RIBA Manser Medal, UK’s most prestigious housing design award. Stormy Castle, by Loyn & Co., a contemporary private house in an area of outstanding natural beauty atop a hillside on the Gower Peninsula in Wales, has been named Britain’s best new home.

Despite its remote local environment, the architects erected a three-storey home that pulls a remarkable amount of natural light deep into its interior. Complementing this are
polished concrete floors flowing throughout and crystalline white ceilings, which help create a contemporary feel in such a rural setting. Rusted steel on the external doors, cladding and on the roof of the retained barn evokes a raw sense of aesthetics and sits well with
materials used locally in farm buildings. Although the house is 725 square metres in area, much of it is cleverly hidden underground.

Referring to Stormy Castle, RIBA Manser Medal Chair Michael Manser CBE, said, “The aim of the Manser Medal has always been to influence the public to demand, and the mass housebuilders to supply, better designed homes...This is a bold design in an area of Wales, where, arguably, more conservative design selections hold sway.”

The RIBA Manser Medal, awarded every year, was created in 2001 to celebrate excellence in housing design. It is named after Michael Manser, a former RIBA President and the designer of celebrated homes.