SDA 2022 Entries

• Housing - Buildings such as houses, flats and apartments that are used for sheltering people. These could be either part of the private or public sector and could be individual dwellings or multi-dwelling developments. Social rented, affordable rented and intermediate housing provided to specified eligible households whose needs are not met by the market, are included. 

The water tower, a slender frame that once supported the heavy mass of a steel water tank above, now acts as a landmark that marks the end of the historic village it previously served.

The historic village of Castle Acre is home to a ruined Norman Castle, a ruined 11thC Priory, a ruin Bailey gate and the ruined steel Water Tower. The Water Tower had been relocated from a local airfield after the war and had become a popular landmark with villagers, many of whom had climbed it during their youth. Bidding against scrap metal dealers the tower was bought by the client in an auction. As part of the living history of the village, the disused structure’s restoration has ensured its existing values are retained, by giving life back to its structural system, converting it to a home that benefits from its unique form and panoramic views of the surrounding barley fields, and drawing great support from the local community in the process.

The rusty panelised steel tank itself has been retained and reused as a living room, transformed with an expansive, panoramic view of the horizon. The continuous ribbon window gives the illusion that the cut tank is floating above it. Hidden supports in the ribbon window’s corner units, and steel trusses above and below, work in tandem with the existing steel panels. A single skylight with mirror surround brings light from every direction into the dining and cooking space.

Suspended below the tank, two bedrooms and a ground floor garden room are built as prefabricated cross laminated timber structures. The timber cube like sleeping chambers are fully-glazed on the north elevation to minimize light pollution to the village to the south, and to overlook a vast field of barley that becomes a rural spectacle, seen from above as it sways in the wind. The tall chamber each contains a washroom and wardrobe and a mezzanine for additional sleepers. Small window to the east and west provide cross ventilation and castle like observation.

A separate cross laminated stair tower to the south has been added for access, connected to the rooms via glazed bridges. The stair tower acts as a compression spiral as found in a sea shell, delivering the hilltop wind loads to the foundation and minimizing the thickness of the timber walls. The combined strength of the timber spiral and shear walls form a ridged structure that lends stability to the existing steel frame structure as it adds lateral stability where it connects to the existing tank. Rusty iron balusters have been formed from recycled tie rods that once pulled together the inner sides of the water tank.

Completion: 2019
Construction Cose: £575,000 (Private)