Manser Medal: eight finalists named for AJ House of the Year 2023

The contenders range from the full-on country house that is Denizen Works’ mini-Castle Drogo-like Hundred Acre Wood to agricultural shed conversions in the form of David Kohn Architects' Cowshed on a Devon farm, and schemes in more suburban and urban contexts including 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.

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 Manser Medal was launched in 2001 to inspire innovation in house design and began life in partnership with the AJ. The inaugural winning project was Cezary Bednarski’s 1A Merthyr Terrace in Barnes. Other winners have included Mole Architects’ Black House in 2004 and Skene Catling de la Peña’s Flint House in Buckinghamshire in 2015. The Manser Medal became part of the AJ Architecture Awards again in 2019.

Last year’s medal went to Knox Bhavan Architects’ riverside March House in Cookham, Berkshire, which the judges praised as ‘thoughtfully composed, carefully detailed, modest and delightful’.

As with all the AJAA categories, expert judges are in the process of visiting every shortlisted scheme.

In addition to stand-out design, the judges will consider how each project has met or exceeded its brief, how it has promoted client or community engagement and how it has excelled in the use of space or sense of place. They will also analyse what sustainability measures have been put in place. Each project must have been completed between 1 January 2022 and 31 July 2023.

The winners will be announced at a celebratory dinner at the Hilton Metropole, London, on 22 November 2023. Find out more details and book here.

 

The 2023 AJ Architecture Awards are sponsored by