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Private house, Lisvane

The interior plays visual games with its landscape

Credit: Stale Eriksen

Loyn & Co Architects for a private client

Contract value: £900,000

GIA: 467m2

RSAW Building of the Year

Approaching the private house through late 20th century suburban Cardiff, you’d be forgiven for thinking it is a reticent exercise in good manners. But above the brick perimeter wall and alongside a heavy pitched roof (planners wanted a single storey look) sit two ‘floating’ elements – a study and playroom. This is something different. 

  • Credit: Stale Eriksen
  • Credit: Stale Eriksen
  • Credit: Stale Eriksen
  • Credit: Stale Eriksen
  • Credit: Stale Eriksen
  • Credit: Stale Eriksen
  • Credit: Stale Eriksen
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Loyn & Co has made its name in high-end housing and this one is a real tour-de-force. The mix of brick and timber, the walls merging into landscape and the over-riding horizontality reminds you of Peter Aldington at his height. But this is no exercise in romantic plagiarism. This house is a rich and unique solution, made even richer by its very high plan efficiency; the visual games the interior plays with its landscape, and its passive low energy principles. The client is clearly delighted and it’s not hard to see why. They set a high ambition, asking that the new dwelling should ‘make you want to get up in the morning’; make you ‘feel alive’ and ‘help the family interact’. The final result has undoubtedly met those criteria.


See other winners in the RIBA Regional Awards 2015 – Wales

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