Cornish Companies are Dwelling on Good News

June 17, 2013 - PRLog -- Truro based Duchy Contracts and Helston/St Ives based R A Design won ‘Best Individual Dwelling’ category at the Local Authorities Building Controls’ (LABC) South West Regional ‘Buildings Excellence Awards’, for The Haven which is perched on the cliffs at Hawkes Point, Carbis Bay.

6000 entries were received, whittled down to 27 finalists competing for the coveted title, in order to go forward to the LABC National Awards in November.

The Building Excellence Awards recognise the essence of good buildings, with finalists judged on the "Excellence" shown from a construction and technical building control point of view.

Their awards showcase buildings and design teams that have had to tussle with technical issues, difficult sites, innovative and creative solutions and to be nominated is a huge achievement, as entries can only be received via nominations from the LABC.

With 6000 new dwellings put forward to Cornwall Council each year, The Haven was the only project nominated by Chris Menear, Development Officer for Cornwall Council who looks after building control and is area surveyor for a wide area of the county from Sennen to St Ives.

Chris explains:  “I chose ‘The Haven’, which was built by Truro based Duchy Contracts and designed by Helston and St Ives based R A Design, because of the obscure nature of where the site is located.  All of the materials had to be taken over a pedestrian crossing on a train line, so there were many obstacles to overcome to achieve such a beautiful new build.  Technically and logistically The Haven shows what a positive team effort from Cornwall Council Building Control, the building contractors and architects can achieve.”

Jamie Shelton, Director of Duchy Contacts was delighted to attend the ceremony to receive the award commenting:
“The award ceremony really brought home how well this project has been received and I would like to thank Chris Menear for nominating us.  With strong competition from across the South West we knew that we had built a unique property, but we never thought that we would win – at the time we were just delivering what the client wanted. In retrospect it is amazing what we have achieved and it has been a pleasure working with my team, the client and R A Design to deliver it.”

Jamie continued: “There were significant issues to tackle, not least of all the site’s location on Hawkes Point across a train line.  This meant that a detailed health and safety plan had to be implemented and all of the materials taken across at specific times of day – which is no small achievement considering the dwelling was a complete new build.  Everything was built entirely on site, meeting various challenges, including a mineshaft which needed capping.”

Chris Strike, Director of R A Design is proud to have won saying:
“We are a relatively new architectural practice so to be nominated for such a prestigious award is amazing, let alone winning it.  We are now very excited about going forward to the National awards in November.”

Chris continued: “This project has a fantastic mix of traditional and contemporary features and is located in one of the most sought after locations in the South West. The dwelling was designed to sit seamlessly on the headland and it has been a joy to watch our design come to fruition.  Working with Duchy Contracts, we have successfully overcome various obstacles with this difficult build with an amazing result.”

Not only an architectural and building success, the result is a luxury property with breath-taking views, five en-suite bedrooms, a state-of-the-art kitchen and decked terrace with a hot tub – all of which had to be taken across the train line.

The spacious open plan living area features solid oak floors and pillars, with a master bedroom boasting a deep stone bath strategically placed at the foot of the bed, overlooking the sea views that lie beneath.  

The exterior of the property includes a large wrap around decking area with panoramic Atlantic views.

For more info and photographs, visit http://www.duchycontracts.com or http://radesign.org.uk