Private house, London SE5
Architects: Robert Dye Associates
This is the kind of project encouraged by Grand Design-type TV programmes, yet it skilfully manages to avoid the kind of architectural showing off that can be encouraged by television. Both as a minor, but by no means trivial, work of architecture and as a result of that exceptional partnership, it is model intervention in a suburban setting.
RIBA Award winner 2005: Private house, East Dulwich, London SE5 by Robert Dye Associates; photo
PRESS RELEASE
Stealth House takes RIBA prize for the best one-off house
Stealth House in London, an ad hoc amalgam of pre-existing buildings with major new elements, has won the RIBA Manser Medal sponsored by Velux in association with The Best of British Homes for the best one-off house designed by an architect in the UK. Designed by Robert Dye Associates, the house beat off stiff competition from three other new architect-designed houses to take the prize. The announcement was made tonight at a special awards ceremony for The RIBA Stirling Prize in association with The Architects' Journal at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh. The Manser Medal is awarded for the best one-off house designed by an architect in the UK. The award is judged by a panel including Michael Manser CBE, Past President of the RIBA; Meredith Bowles, architect, winner of the 2004 Manser Medal; Michael Hanson, Editor, The Best of British Homes; and Tony Chapman, RIBA Head of Awards.
The judges said:
“The design makes much of a tight site, and shows how good architects can turn an unpromising space into a real delight. It provides a lesson to suburban house builders in how to get much more than expected from a standard plot, and shows how a striking contemporary building can be appropriate to its context.
“The design of the house is clever in the way that it takes advantage of what the site has to offer, allowing views whilst preserving privacy; dissolving the corners to provide views down the street; and using sunlight to add another dimension to a small house.
“It is also playful and witty. ‘As found' materials trace the original house against the finish of the new work. There is also delight in the plan where rooms suggest possibilities rather than dictate a single use.
“The details are beautifully executed. It has obviously been a terrific collaboration between a self-builder and an architect, and shows that doing things in a non-conventional way is not only possible, but can produce buildings of quality without high cost.”
