Winchester: Witcher Crawford Architects wins national design award

Winchester-based Witcher Crawford Architects has won the Interiors Award at this year’s Wood Awards, the UK’s premier competition for excellence in architecture and product design in the world’s only naturally sustainable material.

Witcher Crawford Architects picked up the prize for its innovative design for the rear staircase in Portledge House, a Grade II-listed Manor House in north Devon. The judges said: “This is an almost faultless piece of work, a surprising intervention in the historic context that works extremely well.”

The staircase was created as a distinct contemporary insertion into a medieval service wing of the historic house, which Witcher Crawford has comprehensively remodelled for its new owner. The staircase blends with wall panelling to create a homogeneous design using English oak chevrons between darker walnut fins. On the staircase, the walnut fins form spindles supporting a leather handrail. Its design as a bespoke sculptural piece was instrumental in winning approval from Historic England and Torridge District Council’s conservation officer to replace an earlier and much altered staircase.

Partner Geoff Crawford said: “We’re excited to receive this award, particularly in its context as a modern intervention in an important historic building. We hope that the recognition our approach has received will help to broaden the conversation with conservation officers about what is appropriate and what may be achieved when dealing with changes to historic buildings.”

Witcher Crawford worked with Tiverton-based joiners, Warren Hughes Furniture which made the staircase in a combination of European walnut and local storm-felled English oak. It was engineered off-site using CNC machining and assembled by hand using traditional joinery techniques.