A contemporary coastal home blending natural materials with thoughtful structural design, creating a durable, context-sensitive dwelling within a sensitive landscape.
A contemporary coastal home blending natural materials with thoughtful structural design, creating a durable, context-sensitive dwelling within a sensitive landscape.
Award:
Downland Prize 2010 – Highly Commended
The Shingle House is a bespoke four-bedroom dwelling located in Lymington, close to the New Forest. Designed by Giaci Donvito, the house forms a modern response to its wooded context, prioritising simplicity, material honesty, and integration with the landscape. The 220m2 home adopts a restrained architectural language, allowing its form and materials to sit quietly within its surroundings.
The defining feature of the design is its external envelope, combining Canadian cedar shingles with a zinc roof to create a unified, textured form. This material palette draws from both coastal and woodland vernaculars, enabling the building to weather naturally and blend into its environment over time. The house features clean lines and minimal detailing reinforcing its contemporary character.
AWA’s structural design was developed to support and enhance the architectural vision. A load-bearing masonry structure was adopted to provide robustness while maintaining the simplicity of the form. Careful coordination ensured that the structure worked seamlessly with the external cladding and roof geometry, avoiding unnecessary complexity. The result is a stunning home, which was recognised for its design quality by being highly commended at the Downland Prize awards.
AWA Consulting Engineers is a structural, civil, and marine engineering consultancy established in 1987, with a hard-won but deserved reputation for delivering excellence in our profession.
Our philosophy is simple: we put people first. This has resulted in a high number of repeat clients and an impressive track record of successful award-winning projects. We are proud to be professional, and approachable; we believe this makes us the ideal partner for your project.
AWA has technical teams in our offices located in Romsey, Hampshire and Bath, Somerset. We deliver services to clients typically across the South, South East and South West.
Our team includes both chartered structural engineers and chartered civil engineers committed to continuous professional development ensuring you benefit from up to date industry expertise, whatever your project entails.
To find out more about how AWA Consulting Engineers can help with your project, get in touch today. Email mail@awaengineers.com and one of the team will be in touch. Alternatively, call 01794 524447 to speak to a member of our team.
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