A barn-style home built to a modest budget and firmly rooted to its agricultural setting in County Down in Northern Ireland won the RIBA House of the Year award 2019. House Lessans, designed by McGonigle McGrath, won the annual gong for the best architect-designed house in the UK.

House Lessans has won RIBA House of the Year award. Photograph: Aiden McGrath

Built on the site of a former farmstead, the new dwelling completes a small compound of agricultural buildings. Its crisp, white rendered concrete walls capped with zinc pitched roofs echo the adjacent corrugated barn and root the family home within the landscape.

The home is formed of two perpendicular blocks – a dramatic double-height living space, and a suite of three bedrooms overlooking a tranquil sheltered courtyard garden. All the rooms are minimal and pared back, and vary dramatically in volume and feel. The open-plan kitchen and snug take advantage of the views with huge expanses of glass, while the three, equally sized bedrooms are restrained, private and more familiar in scale.

The 235-sqm house cost just £335,000 (£1,425/sqm) which, according to RIBA president Alan Jones, proves that life-enhancing architecture does not have to cost the earth. “McGonigle McGrath has used incredible clarity and restraint to create a truly bespoke home that resonates with its owners and its context,” Mr Jones said. 

“Walls made of cheap concrete bricks have been carefully laid and painted inside with flush mortar joins to ensure a perfect finish. The huge windows are also fixed throughout – with openings for ventilation – a far cheaper alternative to bifold doors. Every penny of the client’s budget has been well spent,” he said.

January 20, 2020