Grand Designs House of the Year 2019: House Lessans, a £335k dream home on a budget Costing just £1,425 per square metre, it's a remarkable achievement for a … The house requires little additional energy for heating. Costing just £1,425 per square metre, it's a remarkable achievement for a newly built home of this scale.Designed by architects McGonigle McGrath, House Lessans is aptly named, as it gives us all a lesson on how clever architecture can see a stunning yet simple home built on a budget of just £335,000.The property sits within a carefully orchestrated architectural ensemble formed of an existing barn, a new forecourt, a discrete bedroom block with private courtyard, and expansive living spaces.With a double-height living space, a suite of three bedrooms overlooking a tranquil sheltered courtyard garden, and a breathtaking open-plan kitchen and snug with huge expanses of glass, Sylvia and Michael, owners of House Lessans, were looking for a home where their grown-up children would be keen to come and stay. One man's home is another man's hell, as the winner of House of the Year 2017 is discovering after scooping the prestigious Grand Designs prize. 'It is, indeed, a master template for the art of exquisite simplicity. This tiny site in south London is only 35 square metres, and almost 50 per cent of the home's living space is below ground.Every millimetre of the project was critical according to Ty Tikari who, along with his wife Nicola, designed and built the home to live in with the couple's two daughters. This year's winner of RIBA's House of the Year has been announced - find out which creative build stole the crown. The entrance is positioned between these elements and allows the visitor the experience of both enclosure and landscape. The second living element is rotated to address the view. Crafted from a soft wool mix, this vibrant cushion design features a twinkly light print and it's oh-so-festive! Talking about the plans for House Lessans, architect McGonigle McGrath said: 'The house is conceived as two simple elements arranged in relation to the retained and re-used barn, to create the enclosure associated with vernacular clusters, and to permit visual and physical connections to the rolling landscape to the south and west. This snowy Christmas scene shows a family of reindeer surrounded by tall fir trees with Santa riding in his sleigh above.This festive scene of a grove of Christmas trees in the snow is simply charming. Clad in local stone, with a long ribbon window suggestive of a bird hide, it's technically an extension, for it is attached to an existing traditional white cottage. This Christmas Village designed cushion has metallic details for extra sparkle and is finished with velvet piping.Keep it simple with this grey stag-designed faux fur cushion. Which houses have been shortlisted for the RIBA House of the Year 2019? Grand Designs TV Houses Grand Designs House of the Year 2019 shortlist. 'Forms and materiality are derived from the language of local corrugated agricultural outbuildings, simple pitched roofs of zinc on masonry walls creating courts and yards, referenced to the datum set by the barn, all rising from an embedded concrete plinth. The new buildings deliberately mirror the materials used for local corrugated agricultural outbuildings, with simple pitched roofs of zinc on masonry walls creating courtyard spaces. RIBA judges praise the house for its strong connection with the shoreline and breathtaking view... ...but also for the innovative home's minimalist interior which acts as the perfect backdrop for artefacts the couple have collected on their travels over the years. It was designed as a collection of buildings and then joined together to produce the house.A series of asymmetrical pitched roofs rising from the building's central 'knot' structure allows for separate wings.This house seems to defy the rules of gravity in some places, with a Harry Potter-style 'free-flying' staircase held in place by the wizardry of steel.The architect's brief for this contemporary eco-house was to build a house on a remote, rural plot in the South Downs for his own family, while achieving Passivhaus certification on a small budget.It replaced two dilapidated sheds formerly on the site, with a compact bedroom wing set at a right angle and separate open-plan living spaces showcasing the views with floor-to-ceiling windows and skylights.