Caring Wood by James Macdonald Wright and Niall Maxwell is the RIBA House of the Year 2017. Inspired by the traditional oast houses of Kent, the agricultural buildings for kilning
hops, Caring Wood revives local building crafts and traditions including locally sourced handmade peg clay tiles, locally quarried ragstone and coppiced chestnut cladding. The house comprises four towers, with interlinking roofs like markers in the landscape, echoing other oast houses in the distance.
Caring Wood re-imagines the traditional English country house. It speaks of its time and place: with a contemporary design that has clear links to the rural vernacular.
The RIBA House of the Year is awarded to the best new house designed by an architect in the UK. The shortlist and winner were announced as part of Grand Designs: House of the Year, a special four-part Channel 4 TV series presented by Kevin McCloud, Damion Burrows and Michelle Ogundehin.
