Cowshed retrofit wins Manser Medal – AJ House of the Year 2023

‘This house ticked so many boxes,’ said one judge of the standout winner of The Manser Medal – AJ House of the Year. ‘It makes a great home and prioritises sustainability – all on a constrained budget. A tour de force.’

The house – Cowshed by David Kohn Architects – was created out of a converted shed on a Devon dairy farm, the last of five buildings to be converted to residential use to create a small co-housing community. As much of the existing fabric as possible was kept. The design expresses original features such as the timber trusses, while adding locally sourced materials such as Cornish concrete blocks and Devon cedar boarding where needed to complement the agricultural material palette.

‘An exemplar of the best of retrofit,’ said one judge. ‘Brilliant not just as a reuse project but as a regeneration of a site. It’s so interwoven and integrated with the context.’ ‘Sustainability at a whole different level,’ commented another.

Particular praise was reserved for the design and detailing of the interiors. ‘It’s so carefully crafted, taking advantage of all the weirdness of the existing cowshed. There’s a really nice play with levels and an honesty to the reuse, like a tapestry of time, telling a life story. I particularly enjoyed the line where one type of blockwork ran out during the pandemic, like the sedimentary rock of Covid.’

The architect-client relationship was praised too. ‘It sang through the building,’ said one judge. ‘It was so great to see the clients living in it, loving it and happy.’

The long-standing prize recognises the best completed house in the UK and was named after the renowned British architect Michael Manser (1929-2016), a former RIBA president and Royal Academician. The medal became part of the AJ Architecture Awards again in 2019.

Among this year’s finalists were Denizen Works’ mini-Castle Drogo-like Hundred Acre Wood, Mole Architects’ Riverview in Cambridgeshire and AOC’s Studio House on the edge of Hampstead Heath.

Other houses on the shortlist include Maich Swift Architects’ spectacularly sited Rhossili House; the Black House Farm by Robin Lee Architecture, a rework and extension of a 17th-century farm; and Eavesdrop by Tom Dowdall Architects, a single-storey Paragraph 80 house. Completing the list is Found Associates’ Val Des Portes, with its spreading plinth-like extension on an original Georgian house.

Last year, the prize went to March House by Knox Bhavan Architects.

The Manser Medal – AJ House of the Year champions architectural excellence in a new-build or significantly extended and refurbished house. All 8 finalists were visited by an expert judging panel that included Pollard Thomas Edwards senior adviser Teresa Borsuk, AKT II design director Kieron Taylor and Ian Chalk Architects associate Giles Wheeldon.

Location Newton Abbot, Devon • Completion September 2022 • Construction cost Undisclosed • Gross internal floor area 296m² • Client Suzanne Blank Redstone and Peter Redstone • Engineer Structure Workshop • Services engineer P3r Engineers • Embodied carbon 623 kgCO₂/m² • Operational energy use 12,246 kWh/m²/yr