Neil Dusheiko Architects

What does it mean for Neil Dusheiko Architects to be a British Homes Awards winner?

Being a British Homes Awards winner is a fantastic accolade. The calibre of the homes that are entered into the awards every year is extremely high, and the awards are judged by some of the best architects and designers working in the UK – so recognition feels like a real achievement and a heavyweight endorsement from senior industry figures.

What, in your view, are the benefits of winning a British Homes Award? Looking back, how has winning the Award been of practical use? Has it led to new connections within the Industry?

Winning a British Homes Award has helped us to raise our visibility and establish our

credibility as a practice, given the awards’ highly respected status. Following our success with the Danish Mews House, I was invited to join the judging panel in 2023, and found this a hugely enjoyable experience and a valuable opportunity to spend time with industry leaders.

What are you working on next?

We’re working on a range of very interesting domestic and new build home projects, and we are really enjoying the variety. Some require us to take a very sensitive approach to historic – and often listed – properties, while other projects are giving us greater freedom to be adventurous, and to push the boundaries of what’s possible with existing houses in terms of creating dramatic new spaces or playing with the relationship between indoor and outdoor space.

Will you enter the British Homes Awards again this year?

Absolutely. We love sharing our work and contributing to the dialogue of how homes can be made in the UK. The British Homes Awards remains a great platform for doing that.

OB Architecture

Olly Bray

What does it mean for OB Architecture Ltd to be a British Homes Awards winner?

It means a lot more than we initially anticipated. As a result of the win, it has elevated the profile of the project beyond our expectations.

What, in your view, are the benefits of winning a British Homes Award? Looking back, how has winning the Award been of practical use? Has it led to new connections within the Industry?

Winning a high-profile award that is a recognised brand and is voted for by respected peers enables us to talk to a wide audience about the project, i.e. professionals and laypersons alike. Winning any award allows you to be justifiably effusive about your work. In practical terms it is a fantastic tool for promoting the Practice on social media channels and we have had many new connections as a result.

Which aspects of the finished project are you most proud of?

The curved brick detailing.

What are you working on next?

Many mixed-use schemes of over 100 units, including a large urban regeneration project on the south coast.

Why do you think it’s important to enter these specific awards?

Because of the fancy location for the awards lunch!

Bradley Van Der Straeten

Ewald

What does it mean for BVDS Architects to be a British Homes Awards winner? 

Winning a British Homes Awards means a lot to our pratcie. It’s a honour to be associated and to be considered with the best designer talents in the country. To be actually winning an award is the cherry on top, a great way to be recognised for the achievement of the team for a project that took years to be realised.

What, in your view, are the benefits of winning a British Homes Award? Looking back, how has winning the Award been of practical use? Has it led to new connections within the industry? 

Winning an award led to greater recognition in the field of architecture and design. It helps our profile enormously and helped attract more like minded clients.  

What were the standout challenges on the winning project? 

Designing the project from the start of the pandemic, right through to the logistical challenges of the global supply chains have been challenging for both the client, contractor and us as designers.

Which aspects of the finished project are you most proud of? 

We are most proud of the team effort everyone put into it. The client, our practice and the contractor, we all knew our role well and the end product is a result of a fun design and construction process.

Why do you think it's important to enter these specific awards? 

It’s important to recognise the impact the British Home Awards has. The shortlisted projects are a leading example of change; change towards a better, more sustainable built environment. The BHA provides a platform for projects that hope to inspire more of the same and if not better. It increases awareness of what impact good design can have and it can create more demand for it.

Klas Hyllen
Klas Hyllén Architecture

What does it mean for Klas Hyllen Architecture to be a British Homes Awards winner?

This was our first major award win, and we've spent years looking up to practices that we were now up against. To then win and be considered alongside these practices has been awesome. It's a sort of verification that we're doing good work and we hope it's a big stepping stone going into the future. 

Which aspects of the finished project are you most proud of? 

We are most proud of the material language, both internally and externally. The client wanted a contemporary home that was complimentary to his love for mid-century furniture and her love for colour. We feel that we achieved a sense of something that had already been lived in for many years, a sense of timelessness, that we felt worked really well with the client's many objects and style. 

What are you working on next? 

We're currently on site on a very exciting environmental retrofit project where we get to apply all of the 'best practice' principles of how to make an existing 60s house fit for the 21st century - combined with a fantastic contemporary aesthetic. We've also just completed our most intricately detailed project to date - an oblong shaped indoor swimming pool with a very restrained material language and an incredible timber diagrid roof. 

Why do you think it's important to enter these specific awards? 

It is important to stop and celebrate what we've achieved. Often at the end of a project, usually at least 2 years after you were first appointed, everyone is ready to move on. So it's easy to simply jump onto the next project. Celebrating what has been achieved is important for us, the team involved and for the client. It's also a fantastic marketing tool with attracting new work. 

Majik House

What does it mean for The Majik House Co Ltd to be a British Homes Awards winner? 

It was great for Majik House to be recognised by the UK’s professional housebuilding industries and for our work to be seen alongside some of the country’s best architects, designers and construction companies. 

We’ve not entered many awards in the 25 years since we established but this project was definitely a commission which we felt would showcase our work and could stand-up against any integrated smart home in the country. 

What, in your view, are the benefits of winning a British Homes Award? Looking back, how has winning the Award been of practical use? Has it led to new connections within the industry? 

We have certainly seen an increase in direct enquiries from architects since winning the award, so it has definitely helped raise the profile of Majik House and introduced us to a wider audience. Whilst our work is predominantly in the North West, we’ve recently been attracting interest from across the UK which we can accredit to winning the British Homes Award.

Which aspects of the finished project are you most proud of?

The audio throughout the property – and outdoors – is pretty special, but then again so is the lighting design and the control solution which is core to the whole house. 

The equipment rack is something that very few people will ever see, but it’s nothing short of a work of art in my opinion. A judge at a custom install awards said it was “absolutely stunning rack work – quite exceptional”.

What are you working on next?

We’ve got a pretty full order book for the rest of the year, not to mention getting the new Majik House showroom ready for launch in the summer. There’s another project pencilled-in for the same architect (Ben Jurin) who created South Lodge which also promises to be very special, then there’s cinema room and whole house commissions in the Lake District, Lancashire, Cheshire and south Manchester.

Demian Erbar

Director, Erbar Mattes Architects

What does it mean for Erbar Mattes Architects to be a British Homes Awards winner? 

It's a humbling sense of achievement to be recognised simultaneously in two categories at the British Homes Awards: Home Transformation of the Year and Architect of the Year.  

Winning Home Transformation of the Year category is a significant accomplishment as it validates what we set out to achieve, which was to transform the existing building into a new home, well rooted in context, while retaining as much of the existing as possible. We are immensely proud to have achieved this within a modest budget and hope that it sets a positive example for other clients who are considering moving or building new.

We were very fortunate to have been contacted by a visionary client who was very supportive and gave us complete trust in design terms, while at the same time being firm and assertive with their brief and requirements. We believe good architecture undoubtedly thrives from this kind of fruitful collaboration and are aware that there are many more clients and developers out there with a similar ambition and passion for good quality, sustainable design.

Which aspects of the finished project are you most proud of?

When we first started working on the project the building was a complete mess. It had incongruous side and rear extensions from different time periods, lowered plasterboard ceilings, droughty windows, modern radiators fixed on the historic timber panelling, leaking roofs, cheap plastic rainwater pipes, and more. Our clients had been exploring initial design proposals with another firm, which involved significant demolition, removal of trees and building a basement. We’re immensely proud to have created a unique new home through clever intervention that is less complex and retains most of the existing fabric. We knew that retaining the trees would be an asset, but it’s difficult to convey how well they work with the interior spaces. New windows frame views out onto the dense canopies, creating a beautiful play of light and shadow on the whitewashed interior walls. 

As a practice, we strive to implement sustainable solutions wherever possible. On this project, we focused primarily on a passive design approach which prioritises high levels of thermal insulation and air tightness for the new-build additions. The design also features well insulated biodiverse green roofs to assists in regulating the buildings internal temperature and reducing the amount of energy needed for heating and cooling. Openable windows are located to facilitate cross ventilation, providing high air quality throughout the house. Thermal mass is provided by the external masonry wall construction, helping to regulate internal daily temperature fluctuations in the summer. New energy-efficient mechanical systems were installed throughout, including underfloor heating in the new parts of the building with intelligent controls and load optimisation. The courtyard is covered with permeable natural stone gravel, reducing the areas that require maintenance and watering.

RUFFARCHITECTS

Director – Paul Ruff 

Shortlisted for:  

- Development of The Year Over 100 New Homes 

- Apartment Development of The Year 

- Affordable Housing Development of The Year 

Winners of: 

- Development of The Year Over 100 New Homes 

- Apartment Development of The Year 

Project: Lion Green Road 

What were the standout challenges on the winning project?

With a 6.5m level change over the site, a public carpark to incorporate and a Scheduled Monument  forming the long boundary edge to the rear, providing a housing focus to the site was always going  to be challenging. Add a local authority development vehicle; a council in crisis; the first building  nationally at the construction stage to address the Building Safety Act; Building Regulation changes; four out of the five pavilion buildings ranged over 5-7 storeys being categorised as High Risk  Buildings (HRB over 18m); it also became commercially critical to build during the international  Covid-19 lockdowns.  

With a focused Client, Brick By Brick, an outstanding and collaborative contractor, CField  Construction, we had sat Client side with the scheme designers, Mary Duggan Architects for 6  months learning the ins and outs, delicacies, intricacies and challenges of the scheme. Then  Novated, we set about the task of taking this beautifully crafted concept into a buildable and  deliverable scheme. 

We see it as our responsibility to design and deliver high quality, considered housing regardless of  budget.

Lion Green Road knits into the existing community, provides desirable new homes and gives back  much needed accessible landscape and natural playspace, including access to a little known Historic  England Scheduled Monument, The Surrey Iron Railway, celebrating the industrial history of the  area. 

Why do you think it's important to enter these specific awards? 

British Homes Awards set a standard across the industry which presents to clients and the public the  quality possible in this exciting sector. With an understood national need, entering our social  housing scheme, being shortlisted for three and then winning both Apartments of the Year and then  Development of the Year, we are promoting the best in class. Through the award, this helps set the  bar for national delivery standards of beautiful and considered, affordable, places to live.  

The visibility and reach of the award enable those hoping to start a housing project, be that  commissioning client, developer, design team or contractor, the opportunity to research and  understand what value dedicated professional teams can add and quality that can be achieve. In our  projects case, on a very tight budget with considerable challenges.