Stirling Prize 2014: Astley Castle

On a grey and rainy Monday morning in December, I was lucky enough to be asked to represent my placement practice, Callingham Associates, on a tour and talk of Astley Castle, Warwickshire. A tour round a reinvention of ruins.

By Lauren Carpenter

The local branch of the RIBA organised the event, and I jumped at the chance to see the first building in the county to win the prestigious Stirling Prize, as well as taking a few hours out of the office!

The building has been something of a local landmark, having first been built in the 12th century, and was briefly the home of Lady Jane Grey when she was Queen, even if for only nine days. Some of my colleagues even remember attending weddings, parties and various events there before the mysterious fire which turned it to a ruin in 1978.

The Landmark Trust acquired the rotting site in 2000, and appointed Witherford Watson Mann Architects to renovate the derelict building.

The talk was fascinating, and it was great to be led around the newly opened holiday home by the architect who had designed it. They have retained as much of the ruin as possible, and have abutted large masonry diaphragm walls in line with the ruins. These walls not only support the structure, but are set back slightly to allow the ruin to be clearly read. The choice to use an extremely thin brick was inventive, as it enables the brickwork to be ‘stitched’ right up to the ruin, without having to cut the bricks.

Witherford Watson Mann invented their own brick bond, which created eye catching diagonal patterns, intended to highlight the diagonal lines created by the ruins. In total, over one hundred individual drawings had to be drafted, intricately designing every single joint between new and old.

The typical house layout has been inverted. The bedrooms and bathrooms are on the ground floor, whereas the open plan living/kitchen area is on the first floor. Working with the large openings created by the ruins, more light is allowed into the first floor ‘nucleus’, whilst cleverly hiding the glazing behind the original derelict window frames, so as not to be read from the exterior.

My personal highlight of the project was the outdoor dining room. The entrance to the building is through two massive courtyards, both held together by a timber structure at the top, but with no roof. This space doubles up as an external dining room, perfect for summer evenings.

There is a huge 15th century fireplace in one wall, which after restoration is a working fireplace. The rotting shutters are left on the now scenic windows, which frame the views of the stunning Warwickshire landscape. In the centre of the outdoor space sits a grand table, created from the Georgian bricks which were once part of the building, and topped with a large chunk of slate, also found within the ruins.

It is magnificent, that a building with so much local history has a new lease of life – the 8 bed holiday home is fully booked for the next 3 years!

It feels as if this is not just a conservation project, but is a reinvention of the ruins.