“Green House” was made to blend in well with the natural world.
The BBC says that the Royal Institute of British Architects has named a new house that creatively blends interior and outdoor spaces as the UK’s House of the Year. The architects Hayhurst & Co. created the about 2,000 square foot, five-bedroom home known as “Green Home.” Located in the Clyde Circus Conservation Area of the neighborhood, notable features include a central atrium illuminated by the roof, a multipurpose roof terrace, and a design that complements the home’s natural surroundings.

Dido Milne, chairwoman of the RIBA jury, described the home as a “true oasis within the city,” praising the way the warm, natural lighting blended with the open space to create a bright and comfortable feeling. “Your eye is simultaneously drawn upwards to open sky, and down and out across the living room to verdant greenery.”

A homeowner concurs, stating to RIBA that his favorite feature is the way the outdoors pours into his residence. “We’ve always got a connection with what’s going on outside,” he stated. “Essentially, the gardens just feel like extensions of our living space.”

According to Architecture.com, the owners and the firm worked together to overcome the pandemic’s delays, which eventually resulted in a design that is “ultra-practical and architecturally exciting” despite a limited budget. (Although the price was not mentioned.) You don’t feel like the website or budget were constrained anywhere. It feels opulent, cozy, intimate, and unwinding,” Milne remarked.

The green name is more than just a reference to the abundance of light and natural elements in the design. The BBC reports that the house’s timber walls hold 39 tons of sequestered carbon. Air-source heat pumps and solar panels provide the home’s energy instead of fossil fuels. Efficiency is increased by building materials like reclaimed cork rubber flooring, according to Architecture Daily. This year, “a fortress-like home” in Scotland on Loch Awe and a refurbished Devonshire cow shed were on the shortlist for the RIBA annual award.