Acomb High House is a Grade II listed building, situated within the Conservation Area. It had been altered and extended with the earliest part dating back to the late 17th century. Our client committed to the careful repair of the existing building, challenging the design team to incorporate the best of current technologies and materials. Mosedale Gillatt Architects sought to address a variety of building challenges as part of comprehensive conservation, upgrade and retrofit of the property. Where new work was included, this is of high quality, using sustainable technologies and materials. The new contemporary extension was designed to meet the existing building lightly - continuing the historic building line and offering glazed junctions where old meets new, allowing the symmetry of the existing structure to be 'read'. A key component of the design addressed the need to re establish the relationship of the building with the extensive gardens and to encourage solar heating through larger areas of glazing to the living spaces. The client's commitment to the use of sustainable and conservation methodologies meant that the design team were able to engage with a range of materials which were sympathetic to the building fabric, whilst offering 21st century energy efficiency. The extensive grounds have been landscaped by Matthew Wilson to complement the new construction, featuring in ‘Homes and Gardens’ as an exemplar of integration of new landscape, building and historic site. SHORTLISTED - RIBA North East Awards