Clever architect scoops award (From Penarth Times)

Clever architect scoops award

A PENARTH architect has scooped a prestigious award at the 2004 Welsh Design Awards.

Graham Brooks, of Cog Road, Sully, won the award for his design of a garden room at The House, Grove Place Lane in Penarth.

The awards ceremony was held at the Grand Theatre in Swansea on Friday, October 22, and the presentations were made by Edwina Hart, Minister for Social Justice and Regeneration.

Graham was commissioned to design the room for a husband and wife who are soon to retire from teaching jobs in Hong Kong.

The assessors were unanimous in their praise for Mr Brooks' design. One of the judges said: "This flat-roofed garden room extension to an existing house claimed its site confidently and proved a constant source of surprise and delight as we discovered its many and varied spaces both internal and external.

"On a budget of around £70,000, the architect has demonstrated how good design can transform spaces. An awkwardly-shaped triangular site is now a haven for clients whose garden room ambitions have been satisfied and extended by an architect in command of his craft."

Mr Brooks said: "The site was an unusual shape and the clients asked for a garden room because there were certain deficiencies with the house they had bought.

"It got interesting when they said they didn't want the room stuck in the building, they wanted it on the other side of the garden.

"I realised at the side of the garden there was a land wall and thought then we could make a corridor alongside it. The shape of the site and the requirements of the clients dictated the design we came up with."

The event was presented by the Royal Society of Architects in Wales.