The Royal Society of Architects in Wales (RSAW) has announced that two buildings have been given 2017 Welsh Architecture Awards. The winners were announced at a reception in The Classroom, Cardiff and Vale College on Tuesday 30th May.
From a shortlist of four buildings, two were singled out by the jury as Award-winners and recipients of Special Category prizes:
- Silver House, Gower Peninsular designed by Hyde + Hyde Architects
- The Chickenshed, Monmouthshire designed by Hall + Bednarczyk Architects
Silver House designed by Hyde + Hyde Architects won the major award of the evening – the RSAW Building of the Year 2017- and its owners received the RSAW Client of the Year award.
The judges said: “This is a very elegant and thoughtful piece of architecture. It has great conceptual clarity, it is rich with ideas without being over burdened with them. While it is rigorous in resolution it retains an air of easiness and is wholly comfortable in its context. As a family home the accommodation is layered, dens in the basement, bedrooms on the ground floor and living room and master bedroom on the first floor. There is clarity, quality and an overall impression that all aspects of this house have been touched by talented minds.”
The second winner, The Chickenshed, a four-bedroomed holiday home near Trellech in rural Monmouthshire, which the judges described as “very simple and elegant” was also named RSAW Small Project of the Year. Externally, the building is clad in materials that can be seen in agricultural buildings across Wales – black corrugated sheeting, timber cladding, galvanized steel gutters and downpipes. Internally, a calming mood is produced with subtle and natural shades, while the trusses of the original poultry barn are picked out in green and incorporated into the roof structure, signalling their presence as something from another time, but in the same place.
The Welsh Architecture Awards are presented by RSAW (Royal Society of Architects inWales) as the first stage of the UK-wide RIBA Architecture Awards (Royal Institute of BritishArchitects) which in turn lead on to the RIBA Stirling Prize, awarded to the building with the most influence on the evolution of architecture in the UK in 2017.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- For further information and access to high resolution images please contact:
David Rossington or Mary Wrenn at RSAW
rsaw@riba.org
02920 228 987 - RIBA Awards have run continuously since 1966 and are judged and presented locally. No matter the shape, size, budget or location, RIBA Award-winning schemes set the standard for great architecture all across the country. RIBA Awards are for buildings in the UK by RIBA Chartered Architects and RIBA International Fellows.
- The Royal Society of Architects in Wales is the Wales Region of the RIBA and represents around 650 Chartered Architects in Wales. See architecture.com/wales for further information.
