Harpenden House
By Emil Eve Architects
Client Louise and Nick Pollitt
Award RIBA East Award 2025
The award winner tells us: "Emil Eve Architects’ complete renovation of a detached Edwardian house in the Harpenden Conservation Area creates a flexible family home with space to grow and demonstrates the potential of high-quality contemporary design to work in harmony with historic architecture.
The addition of three angled volumes with a continuous undulating sawtooth roof offers distinct but flowing spaces. Expansive sloped rooflights illuminate the interiors with a calm, even quality which recreates the essence of Nordic light.
A dramatic double-height space established at the centre of the house features a library mezzanine and creates connections up and through the building."
The jury says: "All the functional aspects of a busy family home with utility and storage areas are discreet and well provided for – to the extent that there is the potential that the couple may create a microbrewery. The extension to the garden unusually stretches from the boundary to leave just a passage on the north side of the house.
The interior space is broken up not only by the functional uses but also by how the light is modulated through four different-sized rooflights placed within the sawtooth-shaped roof. The client is relishing the experience of living with the changing pattern of daylight and expressed her enjoyment of watching the movement of light across the spaces."
Read the full citation from the RIBA Awards Jury on RIBA Journal
Contractor Ancoba Ltd
Structural Engineer Mark and Partners
Gross internal area 334m²
