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The prestigious Build It Awards is the only independent, expert-judged scheme celebrating the very best of UK self build and renovation. Each year, our panel of experts convenes to scrutinise hundreds of high-quality products, projects and services – with only the very best in each category making it through to our shortlist and, ultimately, to be crowned winners.
What does that mean for you? Well, our vetting process means you can gain confidence in your specification decisions. Each entry undergoes in-depth assessment, so you know the winners are the cream of the self build and renovation crop, complete with an expert-backed Build It Awards seal of approval.
Here we give you the run-down on our 2024 Build It Award-winning homes, architects and designers, with 13 awards going to projects from extensions and brick builds through to eco houses and oak homes.
Photo: Richard Downer
Chris & Mary Noon for their Charming Coastal Oak Home
Replacing a 1950s prefab bungalow in Dorset has given Chris and Mary Noon the home of their dreams. The couple fell in love with the character of oak frame houses, and selected Westwind Oak to realise their self build, designed by Roderick James Architects.
The original planning consent was for a single-storey build, so the team turned the site’s extreme slope into an advantage. An upside-down layout, enabled by digging into the hill and building hefty retaining walls, allows for 1.5-storey design, with all the key living spaces on the entrance storey for future-proofing. “I’d recommend self building to anyone,” says Chris, “though I wouldn’t do it again, as what we’ve created is so fantastic!”
Category Sponsor Self-Build Zone
AR Design Studio for The Ferry House
It’s one thing to own a beautiful building plot; but quite another to realise an equally beautiful home on it. At The Ferry House, the team from AR Design Studio has done just that.
Set alongside the river Avon, and surrounded by trees, the house is made up of three wings. Each has a pitched roof and splays outwards and upwards, maximising light, space and views.
One judge said: “The Ferry House sits beautifully on the site, is totally individual, meets the clients’ requirements, and the detail is to die for.”
Rak Architecture for Shire End West
Perched high up on the Lyme Regis hillside, with far reaching coastal views, this grade II listed house has been upgraded with a wow-factor renovation design by Rak Architecture. The practice replaced a series of tired extensions with a more coherent new addition, while also undertaking measures to significantly improve the energy performance of the original building.
The owner said: “The overall result is a very well-balanced design and an extraordinary visual transformation of the house from every angle.”
Category Sponsor YPSILON Outdoor
Flint Architecture for Cruck Framed House
Conceived as a cluster of buildings, with a barn-style form and glass link, this extension, designed by Flint Architecture, has upgraded a 15th century, grade II listed country cottage – and in doing so to create a modern, spacious, light-filled and energy efficient home.
The owner said: “Our architect listened carefully to our brief, faithfully represented our wishes in the design and held our hands throughout every step of the process.”
Category Sponsor IDSystems
Scandinavian Homes for Family Log Home
Designed by the clients in partnership with Scandinavian Homes – which also supplied the log and timber frame house shell – this 1.5-storey, chalet-style home offers 186m² of living space. This includes three well-proportioned bedrooms and a stunning full-height living area.
Category Sponsor Custom Roof Lights
Timber Innovations for The Long Barn
Nestled into its woodland plot, this home was a collaboration between TAS Architects, Timber Innovations and the clients.
Consisting of two timber frame volumes separated by a courtyard, the house is beautifully realised and was described by one Awards judge as “the perfect candidate for timber frame.”
Sketch Architects for Broad Lane
Broad Lane by Sketch Architects adopts a playful-yet-practical design, accentuating the vaulted rooflines with a mix of vertical and diagonal larch cladding, alongside stylish brick and zinc finishes.
The owner said: “Sketch Architects immediately understood what we wanted to achieve, and encouraged our idea of building a low-energy home with SIPs, helping us to fully understand the system.”
Photo: Mark Watts
Oakwrights & PJT Design for Hedgerows
Long-time collaborators Oakwrights and PJT Design have excelled to create a spectacular countryside house, tailored to its woodland plot and delivering exactly what the client wanted: “an oak frame farmhouse with a modern twist.”
The H-shaped main floorplan, with central entrance projection, creates a stunning triple-ridge roof that defines the external architecture. Oakwrights’ WrightWall and WrightRoof insulating encapsulating panels ensure great energy performance, too. “It’s even better than we dreamed,” say the owners.
Category Sponsor Stovax & Gazco
CB Homes for Brightside
Packed with character, yet grounded in classic design, this project is a backland development on the owners’ garden plot. The home has been finished with Wienerberger’s hand-moulded Hathaway Brindle brick for a heritage-inspired tone adding depth and texture.
The owner said: “The completed house is all we ever imagined it would be.”
ARCO2 Architecture for Ladybird Farm
A mix of stone, timber and copper cladding adds texture and vibrancy to this stunning ICF home, designed by ARCO2 Architecture, while the kinked form helps to take full advantage of the plot’s panoramic views.
Special features that caught the judges’ eyes include the curved reveals to the windows and doors, which are testament to ICF’s versatility.
SIPS@CLAYS for Westfield
Built on an elevated north-facing slope with views of Hadrian’s Wall, Westfield is a highly-efficient home with an ultra-insulated and airtight SIPs house shell at its heart. Engineered and installed by SIPs@Clays, the 142mm Kingspan TEK system is key to the house’s A-rating for energy efficiency, and its impressive 0.6m3/hr/m² airtightness result.
Triple glazing, 6.4kW of solar panels, a 3kW wind turbine with lithium battery, bioethanol stove and an MVHR system all contribute to this low-energy home.
Dan-Wood for Harry Van Gorkum’s Home
This Award-winning design is based on Dan-Wood’s 1.5-storey, three-bed Point 150E house, which has an open-plan kitchen-dining-living zone. Changes included flipping the floorplan 180° to suit the plot, ensuring bedrooms are not overlooked.
The owner said: “Dan-Wood’s agents guided me, a total novice, through the process – helping me create the home I have always wanted, to my taste and requirements.”
Clarendon Homes for Langton Gardens
Set on the outskirts of the village of Headcorn in Kent, popular for its bustling historic high street, Langton Gardens is a development of 12 custom build homes, with 11 complete.
The Awards judges felt Clarenden had delivered an impressive development that showcases custom build has real potential to provide homes people actually want, with genuine choice over the finished look and fit-out.
We would like to say thank you to all of our sponsors of the Build It Awards 2024, and our headline sponsor BuildStore.
Category sponsors: Self-Build Zone, IDSystems, Stovax, YPSILON Outdoor, Custom Roof Lights.
General sponsors: PlotBrowser, The NaCSBA, The NSBRC.
Our Judges: Chris Batesmith, Jane Duncan, Mike Hardwick, Tim Doherty, Nigel Griffiths, Julian Owen, Tom McSherry, Calum Taylor, David Hilton.
Find out more about the Build It Awards by visiting the Build It Awards Website.
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