Wraxall Yard, Dorchester

2024 RIBA South West & Wessex Award
2024 RIBA South West & Wessex Project Architect of the Year Clementine Blakemore

Wraxall Yard, Dorchester
Clementine Blakemore Architects for Wraxall Yard
Contract value: £2,788,500
GIA: 781.9m²
Cost per m²: £3,560

Wraxall Yard is a breath of fresh air in the field of accommodation suitable for people with disabilities. A seamless integration of great design and wellbeing, it has transformed a disused Dorset dairy farm into a community space, holiday lets, and an educational smallholding. The architect worked with the Centre for Accessible Environments and talked to disabled people to better understand their needs and wishes. The buildings have been sensitively repaired and the site made accessible through clever manipulation of landscaping, avoiding the need for obvious ramps and handrails. 

The project is also part of a wider initiative to improve biodiversity and boost the general public’s engagement with wildlife and farming. A beautifully designed courtyard garden provides spaces for guests to sit outside, secluded from one another by blossoming trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials. Unanimous user comments agree that visiting Wraxall Yard is an emotional experience.

The buildings were dilapidated, so had to be partially rebuilt reusing existing stone, those roof trusses that were salvageable and two thirds of the clay tiles. New materials such as the home-grown Douglas fir roof joists were locally sourced where possible. The architect worked closely with local craftsmen to achieve a high quality of finish with an appropriately rural feel to the detailing, so the agricultural buildings’ essential historical character was not washed away. While lip service is often paid to the local vernacular through form, here the vernacular’s full spirit is present through the craft in making, such as in the lime mortar stonework or the new Douglas fir screens.

You could spend a long time here and keep finding new things. The touch of the designer feels light, the changes between materials very natural and the interfaces between buildings and landscaping well considered. Most of the internal spaces are open to the rafters, but there are subtle changes in scale: from the two-storey elevation facing the car park, through a tall breezeway entrance porch, into the more intimate courtyard bounded by single-storey holiday cottages. Inside, the cottages retain a rustic feel with exposed trusses and glossy concrete floors.

The client could easily have spent less and the project shows an extraordinary level of ambition and commitment. It was driven partly by the fact that Wraxall Yard director Nick Read’s mother had multiple sclerosis and was always frustrated by the standard of holiday accommodation available to people in wheelchairs.
The project architect, Clementine Blakemore, has been awarded 2024 RIBA South West & Wessex Project Architect of the Year. As Nick Read says, ‘It takes a special talent to master all the essential elements of being an architect; creative and technical design, project and contract management, steering a client through an unfamiliar process and so on. Without doubt, Clem has achieved all this to an exceptional level. I doubt there is a more satisfied client than me, truly overwhelmed by the finished result, delivered without stress and on budget.’

Wraxall Yard was also commended in the RIBA Journal MacEwen Awards

See the rest of the RIBA South West & Wessex winners here. And all the RIBA Regional Awards here.

To see the whole RIBA Awards process visit architecture.com.

RIBA Regional Awards 2024 sponsored by EH Smith and Autodesk