Now in its 29th year, the AJ Small Projects Award celebrates architecture and structures realised on a smaller scale, this year with a maximum budget of £350,000.

Small Projects provides a showcase of the best in low-cost design from the best designers. Previous winners include Rashid Ali Architects, Carmody Groarke, Haworth Tompkins, Hawkins\Brown, David Leech Architects, Kate Darby Architects and Mole Architects.

This year we received nearly 150 entries. Those shortlisted range from a tiny woodland sauna and city benches to community hubs and both retrofitted and newly built whole houses. And, as always, there are beautiful domestic extensions formed out of rich material palettes to give longevity to the homes they were built for.

Hayatsu Architects wins 2024 AJ Small Projects Award

The 20 shortlisted practices will present their projects to our distinguished judges on 1 May. The panel consists of returning judges Esther Everett, head of design at the London Legacy Development Corporation; Pedro Gil, director at Studio Gil; and Fiona Scott, director at Gort Scott. They are joined by Chris Upson of UGU Architects, winner with MMAS Architects of last year’s award for the Adelaide Street scheme in Belfast.

The judging will be followed by a celebration, when the winners of the overall award, Sustainability Prize and People’s Choice award will be announced. This year it will be held at previous winner Hawkins\Brown’s office in Clerkenwell.

AJ subscribers can read our special Small Projects issue here. If you’re not a subscriber, you can find out about our subscription packages here, or alternatively you can purchase a copy of the Small Projects issue from the AJ Shop.

AJ Small Projects is sponsored by Marley

Izat Arundell

Caochan Na Creige

£217,000

This self-build project in the Outer Hebrides – its name means ‘little quiet one by the rock’ – folds at a 135-degree angle around a large Lewisian gneiss boulder. This generates the internal plan layout, with kitchen, living room and bedroom linked but offset from each other, enjoying differing views and degrees of privacy.

Aiming to evoke the essence of traditional island houses, the building uses local skills and resources. Its timber-frame structure is clad in traditional full-thickness Lewisian gneiss from a nearby quarry, built by friend and stonemason Dan Macaulay. Above, a concrete ring beam has been cast in-situ and washed back to expose its Lewisian gneiss aggregate.

Inside, the cabinetry and joinery is by client Eilidh Izat’s cabinet-maker brother Alasdair. The bedroom, clad in Scottish cedar, provides a warm and intimate interior. RGW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Live Design Practice

The Growing Space

£134,400

The Growing Space is a 68m² lightweight Douglas fir structure adding to the existing cluster of buildings that makes up the Cody Dock community hub in Newham, east London. The charity runs a programme to expand its reach, including gardening and workshops for local schools, as well as workspace for rent.

The building has a structure of frames with cross-bracing and dry construction. All elements were pre-cut with 3D-printed pegs, reducing the construction time to 10 days. The base has six pad foundations with paving slabs, and the structure is wrapped in polycarbonate so that the activities within are visible.

An inverted roof creates a gutter for rainwater harvesting, irrigating the propagated plants.

The design was developed as part of a collaborative process and is the outcome of a live studio project by University of Westminster’s master’s design studio DS20, led by Maria Kramer and Corinna Dean, based on several years of research. FW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Nick Green and Greig Pirrie

Delighthouse

£8,750

Delighthouse was one of eight competition-winning installations built on Woodbine Beach, Toronto, responding to the theme of ‘Radiance’ and forming part of the 2023 Winter Stations series.

It was designed by Edinburgh-based architect Nick Green and graphic designer Greig Pirrie, who sought to reinterpret the typology of the lighthouse as a technicoloured, fairground-inspired landmark. The form echoes the tapered, timber-clad lighthouse structures found around coastal Canada but designed here as an optimistic beacon, rather than a warning.

It was formed around one of the local lifeguard stands, which sit unused in the winter, and consists of eight frames leaning into each other, clad in timber boards. The rhythm of solid panels and openings allows glimpses of the structure within, while a colourful painted pattern wraps around. Ground-level panels radiate out in the sand, stabilising it against winter storms.

Originally installed for two months, Delighthouse proved so popular it was relocated to a local arts centre and will be re-erected near the beach this year. RGW

Location Toronto, Canada (site of first installation) | Start on site February 2023 | Completion February 2023 | Gross internal floor area 16.9m² | Client Winter Stations | Funding Community and local government funding, sponsorship from local businesses and arts organisations | Structural engineer N/A | Services engineer N/A | Main contractor Anex Works | Annual CO₂ emissions Nil | Embodied/whole-life carbon Not supplied | Design life Two-month initial installation, relocated to new sites (ongoing), material recycling expected at end of use | Photography Greig Pirrie

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Patrick Bradley Architect

Barneys Ruins

£122,950

The clients wanted a house and guest annexe that was minimal yet playful, and one that would contrast with the 200-year-old Irish cottage ruins on the site – last lived in by their great-great uncle Barney.

Protecting the social heritage of the site and keeping the existing walls of the cottage, the architect has designed a structure that ‘floats’ above the stone walls, giving the Irish clachan a new lease of life.

To cantilever over the ruins of the clachan, the simple building sits on steel columns, projecting it into the wildflower meadow that surrounds it. The adjacent old barn has been converted into a guest annexe, reusing the existing stone wall structure with a shuttered concrete fireplace and chimney breast, and topped with a galvanised corrugated steel roof as a nod to its agricultural past.

The client wanted to preserve the character of the small annexe by making it dark and rather eerie, in contrast with the bright, modern cantilevered structure above. FW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Satish Jassal Architects

Haringey Brick Bungalow

£270,000

This new-build, two-bedroom home sits on a constrained backland site behind a butcher’s shop on busy Turnpike Lane, north London.

It is formed of a pair of offset volumes, each topped by a pyramid-shaped sedum roof punctuated by rooflights. The offset creates two external spaces – an entrance and a rear courtyard – which bring light to the bedrooms and living space and provide differing views out.

An external material palette of oak and hand-made red brick is used, alongside white stone sills and black steel railings and brise-soleil. The same palette continues internally with a construction designed to be easy to read through its expressed structure and materiality. A central living/dining/kitchen space spans the two pyramids, which each feature a coffered glulam roof topped by rooflights with hanging timber ‘chandeliers’ below, giving a modest grandeur to the space.

Aside from the green sedum roofs, sustainable features include an air-source heat pump, FSC timber, locally sourced brick, steel screw piles, cross-ventilation, high thermal performance and solar shading. RGW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Studio Scott Taylor

Sea Road

£335,000

The original 1920s house in Lymington, Hampshire, had been adapted with piecemeal extensions over the past few decades, resulting in narrow and poorly planned spaces. This project overhauled it and added an extension, culminating in a series of connecting rooms with differing characters, reusing the footings and external walls of the existing where possible.

A central kitchen provides a new focal point for the home, around which the utility, dining and living spaces are located while retaining direct views to the garden. A simple palette of timber, stone and brick has been used throughout.

The house’s exterior ‘inverts’ the traditional features of its 1920s original. Gutters have been concealed, thresholds deepened and brick whitewashed to reflect the white rendered local vernacular and chalky coastal geology.

A central chimney crowns the new extension’s asymmetrical roof, forming an anchor off which the extension is formed. A pottery studio in the garden with an interstitial bench made of a brick ledge to the south façade creates a full stop to the ensemble. FW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

THISS Studio

Sunny Side Up

£200,000

This remodelled and extended 1930s interwar terraced house in Clapton, east London, introduces volume and light to an existing compact kitchen and dark living room, while adding a gently expressive rear extension topped with a curvilinear aluminium canopy.

The new extension has been treated like a bespoke piece of joinery, resulting in a highly crafted take on a fairly simple construction. Sapele wood joinery frames the space, while the aluminium canopy above provides weather protection and mitigates solar heat gain. This extension contains a new dining space that extends out into the banked earth of the garden. Extensive glazing along its rear elevation incorporates a built-in bench seat to enjoy the views out.

The new kitchen’s cabinetry, meanwhile, is characterised by a playful use of colour and incorporates terrazzo worktops. A servery window has been added to allow ease of serving food and drink out to the new patio and garden. RGW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Tikari Works

A Room Around A Tree

£220,000

This project is a new multipurpose garden room and terrace wrapped around a mature Lebanese cedar tree. The client wanted a flexible space for their growing family that would create an acoustic and visual screen from overlooking neighbouring buildings.

The scheme is formed of an expansive roof that fluidly transitions between inside and sheltered outdoor areas. The roof, a lattice of engineered timber beams, is supported on a ‘forest’ of thin steel columns. Its layout and structure are designed to safeguard tree roots, using a floating foundation ring beam and mini piles.

The key move of the roof’s grid unifies the project. It is clad with spray-painted corrugated steel panels. Internally, expressive materials and the underside of the deep ceiling beams create an atmosphere of depth and drama, while the black-stained timber brings the garden’s colours to the foreground.

A curved structural glazed façade creates a minimal separation between inside and out. Punctuating the internal space is a series of bespoke elements designed and built by Tikari Works: an oak kitchen, cast-concrete sink and moveable storage unit. FW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Topo Architects

The NewBridge Project

£63,690

This retrofit of a five-storey former office building has created a home for a local charity supporting artists, curators and communities with a programme of free public events and workshops, a youth project and community-led initiatives.

Capital funding opportunities were limited, due to the property’s five-year lease and condition, so the project explored how a sustainable approach on a limited budget could still deliver significant community value.

In the event, studios for more than 120 artists were created, together with ceramics, print and wood workshops, a bookshop, events space, gallery, flexible co-workspaces and associated offices. The budget was largely deployed in public spaces while other areas were repurposed with a lighter touch. Internally, the concrete structure was uncovered, existing services exposed and new lighting overlaid alongside upgrades to fire safety.

Readily available materials were used for floor finishes, joinery and walls, elevated by stained and painted finishes. The gallery, bookshop and co-workspaces were delivered for £107 per m² (including labour). Over the past year the building has hosted 170 community events. RGW

Location Newcastle upon Tyne | Start on site July 2021 | Completion October 2022 | Gross internal floor area 2,772m² | Client The NewBridge Project | Funding The NewBridge Project, Newcastle University Institute for Creative Arts Practice | Structural engineer N/A | Services engineer Contractor's design | Main contractor The NewBridge Project | Annual CO₂ emissions 21.7 kgCO₂/m² | Embodied/whole-life carbon 11 kgCO₂e/m² (A1-A5), 15 kgCO₂e/m² (A-C) | Design life Five years (minimum) | Photography Topo Architects, Matt Denham

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

VATRAA

Home Office In A Garage Conversion

£90,000

During the pandemic, the clients – a neurosurgeon and a software engineer – approached VATRAA to transform their neglected garage into a secluded haven away from family life. Located at the base of a 1970s four-storey end-of-terrace house, the garage presented some challenges, particularly with how its 8m length reduced natural light.

This lack of light was, therefore, leveraged as an opportunity to ‘manipulate human perception’, say the architects, who opted for dark grey tones rather than white. This choice plays a visual trick, making the subdued light more pronounced through the power of contrast. In addition, textured materials were chosen over smooth ones, highlighting the uneven character of the light and space.

Functionally, the space features a front desk area for work, while the rear serves as a reading nook. Inspired by the clients’ differing personalities, the entrance has a medical skeleton named Adam while the shelves are lined with books on medicine, fantasy and science fiction. FW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

6a architects and Sarah Price Landscapes

Horatio’s Garden

£339,000

This therapeutic garden and pavilion was designed for patients with life-changing spinal and neurological injuries. It sits on a raised, irregular perimeter plot set around new hospital wards at the Welsh Spinal Cord Injury and Neuro Rehabilitation Centre at University Hospital Llandough.

The garden is designed as a series of immersive, sensory rooms – orchard, scented, moss, meadow, greenhouse and pavilion – structured through a mesh grid for climbing plants . Resin floor surfacing makes it suitable for wheelchair users.

The pavilion is constructed of naturally patinated Douglas fir, expressed in the bracing of the walls and the structure of deeply pitched roofs. External exposed joists create a deep portico with widely-spaced Douglas fir columns supporting its edge. These sit on enlarged concrete feet that double as informal seats.

The pavilion is faced in corrugated cladding, below which timber-framed screens slide back to form bench-height openings in walls. Internally, spaces are lined with timber, while wooden ladder shelves, inset with metal-framed glass doors, create bookcases and vitrines. RGW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Architectural Emporium

Bluecoat Hub

£335,000

The Grade I-listed Bluecoat Chambers is Liverpool’s oldest city-centre building, supporting over 30 artists, creative organisations and retailers, and home to Bluecoat, the city’s centre for contemporary arts. Local practice Architectural Emporium was commissioned to redevelop its entrance space, known as The Hub, to create a more welcoming and easier-to-navigate visitor experience.

The scheme reconfigures the space to improve energy efficiency, engagement with adjacent gallery spaces and wayfinding. Its café and reception have been relocated and existing lobbies rearranged, creating a bright new café area, improved tickets and information service, a dedicated children’s space and refurbished public toilets.

A new terrazzo floor has been laid to guide people to the galleries and café, while the reception structures have been finished with artist-commissioned tiles. Large-scale acoustic panels beneath the ceiling double up as signage. High-level seating is arranged around the garden windows and key elements such as columns and skirting boards are highlighted in colour.

The scheme was funded following extensive consultation with local residents on how the space could serve them best. It was designed in close collaboration with artists and client representatives through workshops. FW

Location Liverpool | Start on site January 2021 | Completion July 2022 | Gross internal floor area 265m² | Client Bluecoat Arts Centre | Funding Arts Council England, European Social Investment Fund, Liverpool City Council | Structural engineer Blackett-Ord Conservation Engineering and Architecture | Services engineer Ernest Griffiths Consulting Engineers | Main contractor Spatial Environments | Annual CO₂ emissions Not supplied | Embodied/whole-life carbon Not supplied | Design life 20 years | Photography Matthew Westgate

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Artefact

Triangle House

£292,000

Artefact has added a new wing to a detached 1950s house that sits on a triangular-shaped plot whose geometry is picked up in the design, starting with a triangular splayed column supporting the entrance canopy.

From this, a series of interconnected spaces flows from the street to an exuberantly planted garden, with materials and colours – including triangular blue blocks, terracotta tiles and warm yellow ceilings – that celebrate the client’s heritage and are inspired by the book Caribbean Style by Suzanne Slesin and Stafford Cliff. Leading off a double-height entrance lobby, a kitchen connects to a top-lit dining room which leads in turn to a snug, culminating in a picture window offering a framed view over the adjacent park.

The project used a lean material strategy to reduce costs and carbon in construction but also to lend character. Thus, single-leaf walls constructed from hollow, fairfaced blocks are exposed internally, with insulation and render on the outside. Timber beams and OSB sheathing board are also left exposed and simply painted yellow. RGW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Ashton Porter Architects

Underwing Workshop

£185,000

This project creates a small pottery studio within a side-addition to a listed 15th-century barn. The wing is believed to have originally been an open animal shelter attached to the oak frame of the hay barn.

The main barn has been remodelled slightly to reinstate an original rear door. Infill walls dating from the 19th century have been removed to create a glazed corner with uninterrupted views of the surrounding gardens.

Silicone-framed glass creates a seamless surface and gives the illusion of the retained roof hovering delicately over the side of the main barn.

The side-wing’s structure is propped by a cantilevered steel frame, while the existing oak roof structure is preserved to contrast with the palette of modern materials chosen for the pottery studio fit-out. FW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Built Works

The Drying Shed Sauna

£45,000

This sauna is located on a farm in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It was commissioned for guests staying in two Built Works-designed eco-cabins on the same site, run by Architects Holiday, an online platform for architect-designed holiday lets.

The sauna is in a clearing, where the site’s sloping topography and dense woodland prevent overlooking from the cabins. It features a lightweight, timber-framed structure with raised corrugated roof and red larch cladding. The timber was sourced locally and the structure was insulated with recycled plastic and sheep’s wool. It perches on a salvaged stone and uses root-sensitive screw piles to minimise disruption to the plot.

The design references historical local agricultural buildings in its form and finish. Textured shingles are arranged in repeating panels with corner detailing – a nod to traditional agricultural drying shed façades.

The interior features alder panelling and a hand-crafted bench made from a fallen silver birch found 50m from the site. A large picture window gives views out. Being off-grid, the sauna uses a wood-burning stove to heat Finnish sauna stones. FW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Bureau de Change

Uxbridge Bower

£120,000

Sitting at the end of a 30m-long suburban garden, this distinctive structure accommodates a bedroom and en suite bathroom, as well as integrating concealed garden storage at the rear.

The single-storey pavilion was designed to provide separate, fully accessible living quarters for the client’s mother when she visits from her native Greece.

While the design adheres to the height and mass restrictions stipulated by permitted development, in its form and details it borrows from Art Deco, its elevations composed with low reliefs and stepped, decorative panels.

Three of the elevations are glazed, fitted with sliding doors which give different views of the garden, owing to the pavilion’s hexagonal plan, and sheltered by a projecting veranda painted in a warm ochre that glows in all seasons. The pavilion has a CLT structure, finished with textured render and bush-hammered terrazzo. RGW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Butler Wiltshire

City Clusters

£250,000

This series of six seating and planter clusters is made from terracotta and repurposed timber, providing sculptural and flexible pockets of seating and greenery within the City of London. The tessellating module of each cluster allows for multiple configurations and is designed to be adaptable to different sites and contexts.

The geometry of the modular design derives from the coats of arms of the City’s historic livery companies, typically a five-sided crest or shield. The interchangeable vessels formed from this function as either seats, with varying heights catering for different access needs, or planters filled with tactile, seasonal planting.

The materials used are natural and hand-crafted to contrast with the surrounding glass and steel buildings. The ceramic bases reference the clay on which the City is built as well as Roman pottery found in the area, while the timber seat tops have been made from repurposed fallen urban trees, sourced from within Greater London. RGW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Commonbond Architects

Gardenhide Studio

£22,000

This project is a self-built hempcrete architecture studio in south-east London, designed by and for emerging studio Commonbond Architects. It was designed partly as a test bed for using a breathable biocircular building material, as well as creating a garden studio that felt permanently embedded in the garden.

The space is formed of two interconnected rooms. One accommodates a long table with space for drawing and model-making; the other is a snug. The two spaces are supplemented by a small WC and storage platform above.

The scheme has thick hempcrete walls that double up as both structure and insulation. Its thermal mass is efficient, while its east and west-facing windows allow the sun to passively heat the structure. The studio is sited at the end of the garden, facing east, and has a monopitched roof with deep overhanging eaves.

The structure is sunk into the ground by 1m, so that the level of a flowerbed aligns with the top of the desk, giving a view out that is below the foliage and eye-to-eye with the foxes. FW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Hayatsu Architects and Grizedale Arts

The Farmer’s Arms Cold Food Store

£35,000

This small building forms a cold food store for a historic Lake District pub, The Farmer’s Arms, now run by local arts organisation Grizedale Arts as both a pub and a centre for craft skills. The store was built as part of an annual building school at which international participants learned and exchanged craft skills under the instruction of local coppice worker Owen Jones and Japanese plasterer Kiyoshi Fukuda from Yamaguchi.

The building’s design adapts traditional Japanese storage building typologies. A timber frame made from locally sourced larch sits on slate boulders from a nearby quarry, avoiding the need for concrete foundations. English wattle made from hand-split oak laths forms the wall panels and is coated with traditional Japanese shikkui plaster, which provides both fire protection and breathability.

Thick wood-fibre insulation maintains a stable internal temperature for storing vegetables. Externally, walls are decorated with food motifs using traditional plaster pargeting, while the roof is lined with iron slag collected from the local river. This acts as both ballast and a reminder of the area’s industrial past. RGW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

Ian Chalk Architects

Oak Tree House

£335,000

Tendered as two separate packages (enabling and main build), this house’s main build used a Cost Plus contract, chosen so the client could pay for works as and when funds became available. Despite the extended duration from inception to completion (over five years), this approach minimised site overheads and led to a ‘collective self-build’ attitude.

The procurement was decided early in the project and the scheme’s uncomplicated design reflects it. Simple packages of work are clearly defined: screw pile foundations; a timber frame structure; breathable wall build-ups, including the Pavatex product suite with internal lime plaster; and an external cladding of English larch.

The landscaping around the house was created reusing the purpose-built show garden SubAqua, designed by main contractor Joshua Fenton. The repurposed garden has been adapted to suit the building’s arrangement and centres around a grated pond which, over time, will allow aquatic plants to grow through, enhancing the local wildlife. FW

See more photos and drawings of this project in the AJ Buildings Library

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TagsAJ Small Projects AJ Small Projects 2024

AJ Small Projects 2024 shortlist revealed

Hayatsu Architects wins 2024 AJ Small Projects Award

Izat Arundell

Caochan Na Creige

£217,000

Live Design Practice

The Growing Space

£134,400

Nick Green and Greig Pirrie

Delighthouse

£8,750

Patrick Bradley Architect

Barneys Ruins

£122,950

Satish Jassal Architects

Haringey Brick Bungalow

£270,000

Studio Scott Taylor

Sea Road

£335,000

THISS Studio

Sunny Side Up

£200,000

Tikari Works

A Room Around A Tree

£220,000

Topo Architects

The NewBridge Project

£63,690

VATRAA

Home Office In A Garage Conversion

£90,000

6a architects and Sarah Price Landscapes

Horatio’s Garden

£339,000

Architectural Emporium

Bluecoat Hub

£335,000

Artefact

Triangle House

£292,000

Ashton Porter Architects

Underwing Workshop

£185,000

Built Works

The Drying Shed Sauna

£45,000

Bureau de Change

Uxbridge Bower

£120,000

Butler Wiltshire

City Clusters

£250,000

Commonbond Architects

Gardenhide Studio

£22,000

Hayatsu Architects and Grizedale Arts

The Farmer’s Arms Cold Food Store

£35,000

Ian Chalk Architects

Oak Tree House

£335,000

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