WWMArchitects: Astley Castle

Astley Castle, a house for 8 people within the ruins of a 12th century castle, is the winning project of this year’s RIBA Stirling Prize and a prototype for a bold new attitude to restoration and reuse.

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Astley Castle, a groundbreaking modern holiday home inserted into the crumbling walls of an ancient moated castle, in Warwickshire by Witherford Watson Mann Architects has won the coveted RIBA Stirling Prize 2013 for the best building of the year. Now in its 18th year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is the UK’s most prestigious architecture prize.

Witherford Watson Mann Architects , Astley Castle, Warwickshire

Astley Castle is a unique example of the recovery of an ancient building and it is a prototype for a bold new attitude to restoration and reuse.

This sensitive scheme places the new building at the heart of the old, demonstrating creativity, preservation and conservation. In a 12th century fortified manor, on a site originally owned by the Astley family in the 12th century, in Nuneaton, north Warwickshire.

Further damaged by fire in 1978, the architects have created a new house that allows Landmark Trust guests to experience life in a near thousand-year-old castle with distinctly 21st century mod cons.

Astley Castle demonstrates that working within sensitive historic contexts requires far more than the specialist skills of the conservation architect: this is an important piece of architecture, beautifully detailed and crafted. The decision to put the bedrooms and bathrooms on the ground floor and the communal spaces above makes the experience of the house very special as perhaps the most impressive spaces are the outdoor Tudor and Jacobean ruins.