Kingsfield Ponds, Lincolnshire

2024 RIBA East Midlands Award

Kingsfield Ponds, Lincolnshire
Jonathan Hendry Architects for private client
Contract value: Confidential 
GIA: 758m²

Kingsfield Ponds is a new country house built on a secluded site in North East Lincolnshire. It is one of a handful for which the architect has received planning permission on plots in the open countryside where development is only allowed if it is innovative or outstanding, and helps raise the standard of housing in rural areas. The jury agreed that Kingsfield Ponds does raise the standards, featuring innovative responses to sustainability and showcasing what can be achieved by local craftspeople. The simple interiors and furniture are custom-made within 40 miles of the site using locally sourced English elm and larch. Like the ducks on the pond, there is a lot going on beneath the surface to make this house look serene and calm.

The new single-storey house and gardens are surrounded by mature trees, contributing to a high sense of seclusion and privacy. Vast poplar plantations in the vicinity inspired the architect to adopt a 3m by 3m grid, not only for the layout of the house but also for the planting of more than 370 acers, cherry and silver birch trees that surround it.

The timber-clad garage and plant room, the first of the four rectangular pavilions, provides a discreet and understated arrival sequence. A simple concrete path leads you past flowering cherries to the entrance pavilion. From inside the house the gardens are revealed gradually, each pavilion increasingly transparent, culminating in an entirely glazed social heart of the home. The open plan living space sits beneath a large glass lantern or ‘solar collector’.

Beautifully tapered larch clad columns continue the grid of the plantation through the house. Echoing these externally are similarly shapely concrete columns supporting a deep overhanging roof that provides solar shading and sheltered outside space. On an early spring day, with the trees standing leafless, the alignment of trees and structure feels beautifully simple.

The judges appreciated the experimental nature of the house, described by the architect as a prototype for future projects. The solar collector provides a sense of grandeur at the heart of the home, and is used for stack ventilation, with cooling radiant panels incorporated into the reveals of the windows. Environmentally the project effectively integrates state-of-the-art engineering systems, significantly reducing operational carbon and showcasing impressive energy consumption data. The significant biodiversity improvements made over the caravan site that previously occupied the plot are commendable.

This is a house that hides its complexity from view, harmoniously integrating into the landscape. True to the spirit of the planning regulations that it was required to satisfy, it not only raises the standards of design in a rural setting, but showcases what can be achieved when working with local craftspeople and the hand of a skilled architect.

See the rest of the RIBA East Midlands 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