Chilterns Buildings Design Awards

Jointly organised by The Chiltern Society and Chilterns Conservation Board

This is the ninth year of the Awards, and it was satisfying to see that the standard of design had been maintained. There were 13 projects submitted, from which the judges selected eight to visit. These were five house extensions, including one in an ancient barn, two new housing developments and a new Hospice building. From all these, the Winner, the two Commended and the Special Project Award winners’ designs were chosen, all interesting for different reasons.

It is not too soon for you to be looking out for 2008 entries, amongst those extensions and new-builds you have been watching develop. Make a note to get a form from the Office in the autumn/winter, ready to submit your suggested entry by March.

Special Project Award
This was given to the new Hospice of St Francis in Berkhamsted. The old Hospice was inadequate and the hospice charity collected money for several years to fund the new premises. The buildings are externally simple, well detailed, well proportioned and pleasing. They function well internally, are of great value to the community and the interesting landscaping enhances the site, while forming a peaceful view from the patients’ rooms. The pictures show a view of the whole project, which has a central round tower block as a visual link, separating the out-patients’ treatment areas from the living-in patients. This creates two access points and better privacy for the in-patients.

Architects: Penton, Smart and Grimwade, St Albans, Hertfordshire.
Landscape Architect: G K Pockett, Cookham, Berkshire.
Structural Engineer: KRA Consulting Engineers, Wokingham, Berkshire.
Builders: M C Robins & Co. Ltd, Henleyon- Thames, Oxfordshire.

Commended
Sandene, 6 Woodhill Drive, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, a two-storey extension to an existing house to provide kitchen/breakfast room on the ground floor and one bedroom above. The new home is now a better balanced and more pleasing building than it was before. The extension was carefully added, with exactly matching materials, so that it appears untouched.

Architect: Vincent Ford, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.
Builder: Pearson Building, Raans Road, Amersham, Buckinghamshire.

Commended
A group of five new affordable housing units at Little Gibbs, West lane, Bledlow, Buckinghamshire. The houses have blended well into the area, by including a sensitive use of small details, the porches, windows and doors similar to local village cottages. The car parking spaces have been shielded by brick walls, though they are slightly bleak.

Architect: Steve Bowles of HFP Architects, Wendover, Buckinghamshire.
Builder: RHT Developments, Ardington, Wantage, Oxfordshire.

Overall Winner
The Crown Inn, Playhatch, near Reading, a terrace of bedroom accommodation adjacent to a 16th century listed public house. There was a piece of vacant land by the public house, which was often vandalised, and so Peter Malcolm, the manager, decided to use this land, to both remove the vandals’ ‘playground’ and at the same time to extend his business into bed-and-breakfast accommodation, in one development.

Playhatch village is itself charming, in a beautiful area, so it was decided not to build a simple modern block, but to enhance the public garden space while concealing the new rooms to give them privacy. Therefore the new block has been designed as a single storey arc, with wooden room entries and windows on the inside of the curve and a traditional flint-stone and brickwork wall with a wooden pergola above to give interesting sheltered garden tables for the customers to enjoy in the extended garden area. The ambiance thus created is delightful, and the preservation of the village atmosphere highly successful. The flint detailing is very well done with real craftsmanship.

Architect: Andrew Hayward, John Heron and James Walch, of Brownhill, Hayward and Brown,
Chartered Architects, Lichfield, Staffordshire.
Contractors: MC Robins & Co Ltd, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.
Structural Engineer: KRA Consulting Engineers, Wokingham, Berkshire,
Owners: W H Brakspear & Sons Ltd, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

Call for entries
If you know of a project which was completed in the last three years, you can nominate it for the next award. To find out more about the awards scheme and how to make a nomination, please navigate to: 'About us' > 'The Society's heritage' > 'Buildings Design Awards'.