Plas Hendy Stable Block, Monmouthshire

2024 RSAW Award
2024 RSAW Sustainability Award sponsored by Autodesk
2024 RSAW Small Project of the year
2024 RSAW Project Architect of the Year Claire Priest

Plas Hendy Stable Block, Monmouthshire
Studio Brassica Architects for Jane, William Crawley and Bonny Crawley
Contract value: Confidential 
GIA: 147m²

In a bucolic setting near the Welsh-English border in Monmouthshire, the project involved a refurbishment and extension of an existing Arts & Crafts Grade II-listed stable block. Built in 1906, the original building included a tack room, hay loft, and coach house. These spaces have been transformed into a new home which has improved the clients’ quality of life.

Inspired by the Arts & Crafts fabric, Studio Brassica Architects has employed simple materials, detailing and variation in a spirited and playful way, making the old feel very comfortable with the new. Balancing this with heritage and ecological obligations, along with upgrading to the latest sustainable technologies and thermal comfort through solutions that include an innovative pivoting louvre system, the project demonstrates the many benefits of repurposing existing buildings, including those in idyllic countryside settings.

The stable block was designed by Richard Creed and is an original part of the property at Plas Hendy along with the main house. It had largely continued to stable horses, but other parts of the building – coach house, hay loft and tack room – had lost their original purpose over time and required substantial repair.

The client at Plas Hendy is an extended multi-generation family group, and its need for more accommodation motivated the refurbishment of the stable block. The brief also required flexibility for the family groups that would be staying and interchanging for lengthy periods of time. This provided an interesting element to the requirements, in terms of accessibility and conversion of bedrooms to accommodate both elderly family members and children.

Active and passive sustainability measures included the opening up of a substantial section of the south facade where there was a set of sliding doors, to bring in warming daylight onto a dark tiled floor for passive heating during the winter months. This raised the interesting question of how to deal with a significant amount of glazing in this heritage building. The innovative solution takes the form of a privacy screen and sun-shading device. The architect worked with local metalworkers to produce the series of pivoting louvres which open and close using a simple gear mechanism. The system is manually controlled using a hand-operated repurposed cartwheel which offers a daily ritual of opening and closing. Playful moments like these continue throughout the stable block, supporting the cause for repurposing and refurbishing more disused buildings into delightful parts of our lives.

The project architect, Claire Priest, has been awarded RSAW Project Architect of the Year for demonstrating ambition, sensitivity and confidence in working with a listed structure and providing the client with an exemplar home.

See the rest of the RSAW Wales 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