QUEEN’S ARCHITECTURE GRADUATES SHINE AGAIN IN NATIONAL RIBA AWARD 
14 November 2019
A three-bedroom converted farmstead near Saintfield, County Down – designed by two Queen’s alumni at a cost £335,000 – has picked up the prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) House of the Year award.
Described by the judges as having ‘outstanding quality on a tight budget’, House Lessans was chosen over six other architect-designed homes vying for the annual RIBA accolade, which is awarded to the best new one-off house, or house extension, designed by an architect in the UK.
The property was designed by business partners and Queen’s graduates Kieran McGonigle, BSc Dip Arch (1992) and Aidan McGrath, BSc Dip Arch (1978) of Belfast firm McGonigle McGrath.
The result was announced this week (Wednesday, 13 November) during the final episode of Channel 4's Grand Designs: House of the Year by presenter Kevin McCloud. Earlier this year McCloud named a County Londonderry property designed by another Queen’s architecture graduate, Patrick Bradley, as the Grandest Design over the 20 years of the series.
Commenting on this year’s winner, RIBA President Alan Jones, said: “House Lessans demonstrates that life enhancing architecture does not have to cost the earth.
“Executed with incredible clarity and restraint, McGonigle McGrath have used simple and cheap materials to create a truly bespoke home that resonates with its owners and its context.
“Even with the tightest of budgets, House Lessans shows that a dream home, designed by a talented architect, can be a reality.”
Mr Jones, who is also a Queen’s graduate and a member of staff at the University, added that the home – which cost £1,425 per square metre to build – was "a remarkable achievement for a newly built home of this scale".
Former owners of another Belfast practice Twenty Two Over Seven, which designed the Welcome Centre at Queen’s in 1995, Kieran McGonigle and Aidan McGrath are well established and well-known in Northern Ireland architecture circles.
Kieran has been a Project Architect for a number of RIBA Award winning projects of varying scales and typologies, embracing new build and restoration and re-use of redundant buildings. His own home shortlisted for the Manser Medal in 2008, and awarded the prestigious Liam McCormick Prize in the same year. He teaches in the Master’s of Architecture programme at Queen’s.
Speaking to the media this week, Kieran said he hoped the house ‘extends our understanding of how to make buildings in our countryside’.
Aidan, who is a former Executive Director of PLACE (The Northern Ireland Centre for the Built Environment), has himself been a judge in a number of national and international design competitions (including The Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre and the West Belfast Expo). Passionate about photography, he is a regular contributor to several architecture publications.
An L-shaped property built on the site of a former farmstead, House Lessans has white rendered masonry walls on which sits a simple pitched zinc roofs, designed to complement the neighbouring agricultural outbuildings. The property has high internal ceilings and only one bathroom, a decision the owners say was made because it would require less cleaning.
The design of the building has already been recognised in a number of other awards, having received a Special Mention in the 2019 Architectural Association of Ireland (AAI) Awards, a Royal Society of Ulster Architects (RSUA) Award and a RIBA Regional Award (2019).
Completed in 2018, House Lessans was one of 20 houses on the RIBA House of the Year 2019 longlist, which featured in the Grand Designs: House of the Year series. Over the four-week run, the list was reduced to a shortlist of seven across the UK.
The Jury’s report states:
A beautiful new house sits within a carefully orchestrated architectural ensemble formed of an existing barn, a new fore court, a discrete bedroom block with private courtyard and expansive living spaces which look out onto a wonderful green rolling landscape.
The architects have shown remarkable restraint and skill in creating a family home that exudes calm, dignity and generosity. Their skill in editing and making is exemplary. This achievement is all the more remarkable given the overall budget for the project. The house belies any notion that an expensive budget is somehow the gateway to excellence.
It is clear from the resolution and sophistication of an apparently simple architectural language both at a detail and a conceptual level that these architects through their experience and skill continue to find great beauty in the daily routine of living.
The family home in County Down is firmly rooted in its landscape. The home's two blocks echo the barn and other agricultural buildings they sit alongside. Inside, its minimal rooms all have huge windows which take advantage of the views outside.
McGonigle McGrath have managed to design a home of outstanding quality on a budget: House Lessans cost just £335,000. Basic building materials, cost-saving hacks and the simple arrangement of rooms within have meant that every penny of the client's budget has been carefully and well spent.
Quoted in BelfastLive this week, the proud owners of the award-winning house said: “Like most non-architects about to build a home we had a clear idea about what we’d like in terms of rooms but no idea about how these rooms might be arranged or what the house might look like.
“The magic a gifted architect can work was evident from the moment we saw the initial plans and that appreciation deepened as the project progressed. We feel that the house respects and indeed enhances the landscape.
“It is a joy to live in – from seeing the soaring bedroom ceiling on wakening, being surrounded by the gentle landscape in the kitchen during the day, to enjoying the sunset in the top room.
“We’re delighted to be a part of the RIBA celebration of the life enhancing potential of architecture.”
The Royal Institute of British Architects, which has been running the awards continuously since 1966, is a global professional membership body that serves its members and society in order to deliver better buildings and places, stronger communities and a sustainable environment.
For further press information about the House of the Year or RIBA, contact Abigail Chiswell-White Abigail.Chiswell-White@riba.org +44 (0)20 7307 3811.
To submit graduate news items, or for general enquiries about this story, please contact Gerry Power, Communications Officer, Development and Alumni Relations Office, Queen's University Belfast or telephone: +44 (0)28 9097 5321.
Photo credit: Main image by Aidan McGrath
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