Manser Medal - architeria.eu

OXLEY WOODS WINS THE MANSER MEDAL


Oxley Woods by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has won the Manser Medal for Houses and Housing,
sponsored by The Rooflight Company

The announcement was made on Saturday 11 October at a special awards ceremony for the RIBA Stirling
Prize in association with The Architects' Journal at the BT Arena and Convention Centre in Liverpool.
The winner was announced by Michael Manser CBE and a cheque for £5,000 presented by Val King
of the Rooflight Company.

The Manser Medal is awarded for the best one-off house designed by an architect in the UK. All the RIBA
Award-winning houses and housing schemes in the UK were considered for this year’s Manser Medal
and five were shortlisted.

Oxley Woods is the fruit of John Prescott's initiative to promote off-side construction of housing. English
Partnerships held competitions for the design and construction of prefabricated houses meeting
demanding environmental standards. The project represents a thorough-going attempt at innovation within
the all-too risk-averse conventional housebuilders' market. It achieves well- designed and spacious-seeming
housing with excellent daylight. It points to one way forward in achieving high environmental standards
in quality housebuilding. The scheme is therefore well deserving of an award for its through-going spirit
of innovation and the élan of its design.

Speaking about the scheme, Valerie King of the Rooflight Company said:

“Positive feedback from residents of new housing is unprecedented. Equally unusual is the level of co-operation
between architect, contractor and building product supplier to achieve sustainability and waste management
targets.
“If the UK building industry is to provide anything like the 200,000 homes figure over the next ten years, radical
changes in design and construction methods have to take place. Oxley Woods has shown the way.”

The other shortlisted buildings for the award were:

1. Private house, Belfast by Twenty Two Over Seven
2. Halligan House, St Albans by Simon Conder Associates
3. Accordia, Cambridge by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Maccreanor Lavington and Alison Brooks Architects
4. Garden Apartment, London by Gianni Botsford Architects