Daylight from Above Awards winner: Casa Bassa, Guildford

Judges liked the sparing and strategic use of natural light at Casa Bassa, a standalone garage redevelopment that provides additional accommodation in the grounds of the client’s main house in Guildford, Surrey.

The project has been crowned winner of the Light, Space and Atmosphere category in the 2025 Daylight from Above Awards, organised by RIBAJ in partnership with VELUX.

The building provides an escape for the client’s teenage daughters as well as a flexible gym, occasional office and bedroom for guests. Redevelopment was chosen instead of expansion of the main home so as to deliver a more memorable experience, according to the architect. The plinth of the old garage was retained and original steel girders reused as part of the mansard-roofed redevelopment.

Architect Francesco Pierazzi says the design intentionally explores an aesthetic where the extremes of the light spectrum serve as key architectural tools. This is particularly the case at the entrance. Visitors arrive in a narrow stairwell, with a shaft of dramatic toplight encouraging them up twisting stairs – something the judges particularly enjoyed – before opening out into the more expansive, light-filled main accommodation level above. 

This journey is intended as a ‘progression of emotions from enclosure to openness’, says the architect. With its expansive picture windows giving views of the distant North Downs, this is a deliberate contrast, noted the judges, with the dark and monolithic exterior.

'An economic use of natural light in the right places'

The architect’s use of a VELUX roof window was an integral part of the overall daylighting strategy. The project incorporates a 780 x 1400mm VELUX MK0 with a manual centre pivot to bring light through an inclined wall, enabling the angular, canted geometries that characterise the house.

The project demonstrated how toplighting doesn’t have to be expansive, juror Richard Williams pointed out, but can be effective with the strategic use of just ‘a small shaft of light’. 

This was the case with the stairwell light, described by judge Percy Weston as ‘an economic use of natural light, used in the right places’. 

Deniz Beck liked how the light helps visitors to read the turning staircase, and all the judges appreciated the way the light played on the corrugated-effect walls.

According to the architect, the concept for these was loosely inspired by algorithms formed of binary patterns of 0s and 1s, in reference to the client’s expertise in the use of AI. As well as the walls, this binary division also informs the rhythm of other elements such as the timber goalpost frames, zinc cladding, charred timber, battens, and porcelain tiles. This gives texture to surfaces to maximise the interplay of light and shadow. 

As another judge, Gianni Botsford, said: ‘For me this seems to be all about light, all about texture’.

See all winners and commended entries in the 2025 Daylight from Above Awards