‘Skinny house’ and renovated 1930s bungalow added to RIBA House of the Year shortlist

The Slot House - a two-storey ‘skinny house’ inserted into a disused alley in Peckham - and House for Theo and Oskar - a 1930s bungalow in Surrey, that has been remodelled and extended to create a fully accessible, open plan family home - are the third and fourth homes to be shortlisted for RIBA House of the Year 2021.

The annual award is presented to the best new architect-designed house or extension in the UK, with the shortlisted houses revealed on Grand Designs: House of the Year on Channel 4.

Photo: The Slot House by Sandy Rendel Architects with Sally Rendel © Jim Stephenson House for Theo and Oskar by Tigg + Coll Architects © Andy Matthews

The Slot House, by Sandy Rendel Architects with Sally Rendel, demonstrates how with a little more time spent coordinating structure, waste and supply pipes, staircases and cabinetry, the tightest of sites can be inhabited without several more wall, floor and ceiling linings needed to hide the often uncoordinated.

It is after all only careful and combined design time, it doesn’t cost any extra but rewards its occupants with credible habitable spaces filled with light, uplifting and with outlook. Simply and modestly illustrating what architects do, finding the beautiful and seemingly inevitable from the meagre and ignored.

House for Theo and Oskar, by Tigg + Coll Architects, has been specifically designed for Theo and Oskar, who suffer from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

The challenge was to remodel a small family cottage into a home that would cater to the children’s developing needs, considering their reducing mobility and interaction with their environment, both now and in the future. Whilst the interventions appear radical from the rear, the extension wraps around the side of the cottage to form a new front entrance, maintaining the important existing horizontal eaves line and the suggestion of a pitched roof.

The RIBA House of the Year award was established in 2013 and is awarded to the best new house or house extension designed by an architect in the UK.

Previous winners include:

• McGonigle McGrath for House Lessans (2019)
• HaysomWardMiller for Lochside House (2018)
• Richard Murphy Architects for Murphy House (2016)
• Skene Catling de la Peña for Flint House (2015)
• Loyn & Co for Stormy Castle (2014)
• and Carl Turner Architects for Slip House (2013).