South Wales Building Excellence Awards 2020 – Best New Dwelling – Winner We designed Ebony House in the village of St. Nicholas within the Vale of Glamorgan. It won the best new dwelling category at the Vale of Glamorgan Excellence Awards 2020 for its contemporary, uncluttered aesthetic, which sets off high quality natural materials and finishes to the various elements of the building. The house is the first building in the village when arriving from the west. The main facade turns towards this approach and is built of natural stone to both set it apart from the remainder of the composition and protect the main living space from road noise. Shou-sugi-ban charred timber cladding complements the stonework by providing a rich texture, crisply detailed, with neat shadow gaps. The entrance hall has been kept relatively modest in plan, but opens out on the first floor to provide a dramatic introduction to the interior. The curved hardwood staircase has a slotted glazed balustrade and leads to an ample landing at the heart of the first floor. To the left is the master bedroom, with a vaulted ceiling and Juliette balcony overlooking the golf course to the north. To the right are three spacious family bedrooms, each with an en-suite bathroom. The main family space is a double-height sitting area, with a vaulted ceiling at one end, open-plan kitchen diner the other and views out to both main gardens. A more formal sitting room is available at the far end of the ground floor, and a cosy snug nestles between for quieter contemplation or study. Update: the project has now also won the South Wales award and has been nominated by both the South Wales and North Wales awards committee leaders to represent Wales in the national awards. Victoria Walker from Vale of Glamorgan LABC had the following to say about the achievement: ‘Congratulations to you all to be put through as a nomination to represent Wales is amazing, just shows how unique Ebony House is and all the hard work which has gone into the build from design stage to construction!!! We haven’t had one actually get through from Wales for years so really well done.’