The Hall, Ashford

2024 RIBA South East Award

The Hall, Ashford
Taylor Hare Architects for private client

Contract value: Confidential 
GIA: 952m²

This Grade II*-listed 16th century house with Grade II-listed barns and outbuildings sits just outside the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the Kent Downs. The key challenge was to create a sustainable home-for-life that would enhance the forgotten character of the main house and surrounding barns. Working collaboratively with the client, the architect achieved this with finesse; the history of the place can be clearly read alongside carefully considered new interventions. Finely crafted detailing and innovative use of space create a beautiful and functional family home, enhancing the historical character while adding new design using contemporary and traditional techniques.

The setting comprised the principal house plus outbuildings that had been modified over the 20th century with a series of additions, lacking a coherent design narrative. The brief for the project required it to be ‘relevant and sustainable’. Internally the approach emphasised reinstating a natural appearance, with a focus on honest, handcrafted, high-quality materials. This has invested each building with a distinguished character, while retaining the domestic atmosphere. The project epitomises the notion that, rather than being a clean break with the past, the new can be an evolution of it in a continuing history.

A good sustainability strategy effectively reconciled with the historic site to achieve an exemplar of modern green living, sympathetically delivered in a heritage setting. Measures such as zoned underfloor heating, smart lighting, slimline double-glazing, and a water-source heat pump system within a new lake, have contributed to the buildings’ energy efficiency. The scheme took a holistic, considered approach to landscape and ecological enhancement alongside the works to the building.

The design ambition and end result speak beautifully of the value heritage can contribute to elegant living spaces for the future.

See the rest of the RIBA South East 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