The National Self Build & Renovation Centre (NSBRC), has reached a notable milestone.
The unique Swindon based business is celebrating ten years of employee ownership, with a new company (The Homebuilding Centre Ltd) having been formed back in 2014 to operate the much-loved venue, which is dedicated to offering independent homebuilding advice and support.
Ten years on, the NSBRC’s twenty employees now own 80% of the flourishing business, through a combination of direct shares, and shares held in an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). The remaining shares are held by Capital for Colleagues, an investment group who specialise in transitioning businesses to an employee owned model.
On Friday 28th June the team held a special dinner, making full use of the Centre’s space and stunning backdrop of full-sized show houses, with over one hundred guests in attendance – each of whom have played a part in the NSBRC’s journey and success over the past decade. Popular BBC News presenter and journalist, Martine Croxall, hosted the evening, providing an insightful and highly-topical address on the importance of transparency and trust in the media. Martine also introduced other guest speakers including James de le Vingne, CEO of the Employee Ownership Association (EOA).
The evening concluded with a surprise awards ceremony, where the NSBRC team recognised and thanked several of their key suppliers and supporters who have helped the business across the last decade.
Martine Croxall said: “It was a treat to be invited to host the NSBRC’s celebration evening. The hard work of the first ten years of employee ownership and the team spirit they’ve created meant the atmosphere during dinner and the awards ceremony was joyful! Harvey and the other employee owners should be very proud of what they’ve achieved.”
Harvey Fremlin, the NSBRC’s Managing Director, said: ‘We were thrilled to be able to celebrate such an important moment for our business with so many of our colleagues, friends and supporters. Every employee was invited to bring along their partner – as our EO culture has created a caring, family environment. We were also delighted to celebrate some of our key suppliers, such as our amazing cleaning team – who are often in the background – but have made a massive impact on the customer experience we deliver. Having the EOA represented by James, and the fantastic support of Martine, was the icing on the cake and made for a memorable, inspirational night for everyone’.
Employee ownership is a rapidly growing business model in the UK, and EO businesses regularly outperform non-EO peers in almost every metric – they’re 8-12% more productive and invest more in their people, innovation, and communities.
James de le Vingne, CEO of the Employee Ownership Association, said: ‘Congratulations to everyone at the NSBRC on 10 years of EO, and for celebrating with such flair! Your energy and enthusiasm for all you do, and for one another, as fellow employee-owners made for a very special evening. As early adopters of the EOT, it’s fantastic to see you flourishing and to have this recognised by those closest to you. Thank you for inviting me and for being such fantastic EO advocates, you are certainly paving the way for others to follow.’
The National Self Build & Renovation Centre is located on Junction 16 of the M4. Open all year round, Tuesday to Sunday, it has welcomed over a quarter of a million visitors since first opening their doors in 2007.
Their next big event is a Heat & Energy Workshop on Saturday 10th August. The free event will provide over a dozen talks with topics such as Heap Pumps, Solar, Electric Vehicles, Smart Controls and Rainwater Harvesting.
For more information and to book free tickets: https://www.nsbrc.co.uk
NaCSBA member SIP Build UK has scooped a prestigious award in the brand new Making Better Homes Awards, run by national builders’ merchant Jewson. The awards recognise those creating energy-efficient, safe, and comfortable homes across the UK. SIP Build UK’s commitment to sustainability ensured SIP Build UK won in the Best Building Fabric category for its self build, Munoz House.
For the winning project SIP Build UK was commissioned to create a highly insulated and airtight envelope using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) for a self build in Colchester. The panels minimise heat transfer and energy loss through walls, providing excellent thermal performance.
The judging panel was impressed by the use of modern methods and fabric-first approach. Judge Matthew Handley said: “This high energy efficiency build is a great example of how SIPs can add value. The fabric-first method and renewables have delivered a wonderful living space.”
Ian Still, SIP Build UK National Sales Director said: “It’s fantastic to win Jewson’s Building Better Homes Award. Working closely with the homeowner from the start helped ensure this dream Passive Haus Certified SIP home was a success. Seeing the family now enjoying the benefits of their thermally efficient SIPs home makes this project even more special.
“We are immensely proud of this project, as it shows the perfect balance between energy efficiency and aesthetics. We entered the awards to showcase our dedication to quality, efficiency and sustainability in construction. This award is not just an achievement, but a responsibility to keep providing excellent sustainable solutions.”
SIP Build UK is a highly accredited award-winning SIP company that designs, manufactures & installs SIP superstructures. We work nationwide to exact standards and take great pride in delivering our customers fabulous homes and buildings.
Words: Duncan Hayes
NaCSBA member Oakwrights is celebrating a quarter of a century helping self builders create their dream oak-framed home. Specialising in green oak for homes, extensions and outbuildings, Oakwrights started with a team of six back in 1999.
Since then the firm has grown, providing perennially popular oak frame homes that marry traditional carpentry with modern technology and fabrication techniques.
Building in green oak, that is recently felled oak (up to 18 months), is a natural and historical building material that is capable of delivering in spades in terms of engineering strength and architectural detailing, as well as being sustainable as it is a natural carbon sink.
As well as having a show home, the Woodhouse, where clients can experience what it feels like inside an oak-frame home, the firm has gone on to build many self build homes, including turnkey homes, and now is involved with custom building on mult-plot sites. It’s received many awards from the industry press, both for the homes but also its systems, such as the 3i panel system. It recently celebrated winning its third award for Webbs Meadows (below), its custom build site, when it scooped The Daily Telegraph Homebuilding & Renovating Award for Best Custom Build 2023 in December.
Oakwrights also has plots available on its custom build sites, such as at Whipstocks and Webbs Meadow, Herefordshire
Below: Tim Crump, Founder of Oakrights, celebrates with the team
Selfbuilders love getting design inspiration and advice, and where better place to start than with the longlist for the RIBA House of the Year 2023?
Each year Grand Designs: House of the Year shares the shortlist and winners on TV in December, but the longlist gives you a look at what’s to come.
RIBA has published its longlist of lustworthy projects on its www.architecture.com site, with the entries making up some of the most breathtaking homes built in the last year. And it’s not all about Grand Design style homes, NaCSBA member Ecomotive’s tiny SNUG home for HomeMade is in the running too. In fact, SNUG started as a competition entry in NaCSBA’s Self Build on a Shoestring, way back in 2015!
You can also find previous winners on the website, including last year’s RIBA House of the Year, the Red House by David Kohn Architects
If you are looking for an architect, RIBA has a Find an Architect service on its website, together with helpful advice on working with an architect and choosing the right one for your project. Anyone building in Scotland will need to visit RIAS, the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, which has similar resources.
The Build It Awards by Build It magazine in London is a sparkling annual event in the custom and self build calendar, sharing the best the sector has to offer in terms of homes, products and services.
As always, there was a host of National Custom and Self Build Association members in attendance, and was thrilled to see many of its members shortlisted, including Oakwrights which won Best Custom Build Project or Model for its site at Webbs Meadow, below.
The shortlist for this overall winner category is traditionally chosen by Build It’s editorial team from the projects featured in the magazine over the past year. From this shortlist, Build It readers choose the winner in an online poll. In a hotly contested vote, two timber-built new homes particularly captured the readers’ imagination this year. The winner, a self-managed project in Cheshire, saw the owners create a wonderful forever home that beautifully blends modern living with characterful vernacular materials.
Beautifully detailed and suitably understated for its position in glorious countryside, this project impressed the judges for both its design and the fact that the timber frame system and exterior cladding were specifically specified to cope with the demands of the local weather conditions.
The winning project is an exemplar development showing how clusters of high-quality bespoke homes on the fringes of existing settlements can be designed and built in a way that local communities will welcome and customers find very attractive.
North Wood Design & the Mikietyns
Oakwrights for Philip Roberts and Judi Burdett’s home
Bee Solar Technology for Heliomotion Solar Tracking System
MBC Timber Frame for Jan and Philip Oliver’s Home
Paul Archer Design for Willowbrook
Unagru Architecture Urbanism for House for a Cellist
Paul Archer Design for Zucchi House
Orme for Somerset Gate
NIBE Energy Systems for NIBE S2125
Allan Corfield Architects for Low Energy Home in Fife
Saniflo for Sanifos 110
Camel Glass & Joinery for Insipiration Doors
DanWood House for Gemma & James’ Hooker’s home
Origin Windows for the Origin Slimline Window (OW-70)
WB Timber Innovations for Larsen Panel System
Vastern Timber for Brimstone
Drayton for Wiser
Made for Trade for Korniche Roof Lantern
Lilburn and Elliott Construction for Above the Bar
Stovax for Riva2 Woodburning Fires
Lacuna UK and Ireland for Lacuna Bifold Doors
The Build It Awards by Build It magazine are a calendar essential for anyone in the custom and self build arena, sharing all the hard work of the companies and tradespeople that help turn dreams into reality.
As well as the decisions made by the judging panel and the editorial team, the Best Self Build Home or Renovation Project category is always selected by Build Its army of readers.
Each year the shortlist is made up of some of the best homes featured in the magazine over the last 12 months – with six homes vying for the accolade of ‘Best Self Build’!
Sponsored by NaCSBA member Self Build Zone, this people’s choice category allows readers to show what they love – such as last year’s winner – below.
Head over to Build It to get the lowdown on each project, and the story of the people behind them, and add your vote to the mix.
Last years winners were Jan & Diana Thompson for their Woodland Eco Home, which they project managed themselves. Click the photo to read their story on Build It's website.
The Daily Telegraph Homebuilding & Renovating Awards has announced the winner of its annual competition, a firm favourite for fans of homes and design.
The awards celebrate the cream of the UK’s self build, renovations, extensions and conversions, and this year’s awards included a selection of properties that overcame the odds to complete their project. This year’s entrants faced a range of problems that can impact any project, such as planning delays, material shortages, builders bankruptcies and, of course, the pandemic.
The overall Home of the Year winner of the Daily Telegraph Homebuilding & Renovating Awards was Patch House, designed by Spencer and Emma Guy. This family home was a labour of love that was 10 years in the making, with the family finishing the rooms while living in the property between 2011 and 2019.
The property exhibits the couple’s passion, with perfect attention to detail and design principles carried through from the architecture to the interiors. The result is a home that is able to adapt to the needs of the family as it matures, and is highly sufficient as it only requires heating for 70% of the year.
Patch House, Winner of the Home of the Year (Credit Martin Gardner).
“This is a house fit for our challenging times, addressing climate change through harnessing renewable energy technologies,” says architect and judge Darren Bray. “It’s designed to enhance the site context and landscape, including the natural swimming pond that sits to one end of the two storey volumes.”
“We were particularly impressed by how this new home has been exactingly designed for its site, which was previously occupied by a derelict chicken shed,” adds editor and judge Claire Lloyd. “Not only does the house’s orientation ensure that the living areas benefit from passive solar gain, but carefully placed glazing frames the views like artwork and natural light brings different spaces to life throughout the day. This new home exudes warmth and character but, importantly, it’s also a practical, robust family home.”
The Build It Awards by Build It magazine made a welcome return to a live event with a lavish ceremony in London, bringing together a range of stakeholders and companies operating in the sphere of custom and self build.
The National Custom and Self Build Association was thrilled to see many of its members shortlisted, with some well-deserved projects going on to win awards. We’d like to say a hearty well done to all those shortlisted, and a special congratulations to our members Graven Hill, Carpenter Oak, Frame Technologies, Oakwrights and Unboxed Homes for winning their categories.
Simon Orrells, managing director of Frame Technologies, which one Best Timber Frame Home for Gryphon House, said: “We’re thrilled to have won the Best Timber Frame Home in this year’s Build It Awards.
“There was some tough competition and to get this recognition with such a beautiful, sustainable build really means the world to us. We work with self-builders across the country to create stunning, bespoke, energy-efficient timber frame homes and it’s an honour to be recognised for the work that we do in this way.”
Ke-design for The Barn Field (Slide 1)
Andy & Sue Perrin for Willowplatt Barn by Carpenter Oak
Moss Technical for Niko Home Control Solar Mode
Frame Technologies for Gryphon House (Slide 2)
Oakwrights for Woodlands (Slide 3)
Graven Hill for The Adams’ Home
Unboxed Homes for Blenheim Grove (Slide 4)
David Jones of KAST Architects for Milk Moon Barns
RED for its UHE Heat Pumps
Glosford SIPS for Fuggles Pocket
Impey for their Aqua-Grade wet room solution
Max-Stairs for The Sculpture
Baufritz UK for House Mackintosh
Corksol UK for SprayCork
Accsys for Accoya
Keylite Roof Windows for their Integrated Expanding Thermal Collar
Nudura for Stonehouse
Firepower Heating for the Woodfire Passiv
IDSystems for theEDGE 2.0
James Lock from Roderick James Architects for Delphis
The shortlist was chosen by Build It’s editorial team from the projects featured in the magazine over the past year, and then voted on by Build It readers.
This year’s nominations included (click to find out more):
• Timber Frame Dream Home by Sue Drawbridge & Antony Wright
• Barn-Style Self Build by Frances & Tom Edwards
• Contemporary Extension to a Period Property by Caroline & Gustavo Ordonez-Sanz
• Oak Frame Countryside Self Build by Deirdre & David Rook
• Wow Factor Bungalow Revamp by Matt & Kirstie Stevens
• Woodland Eco Home by Jan & Diana Thompson
The award went to a couple who self-project managed their way to a stunning woodland home that draws inspiration from the local area. Backed up by weekly site visits from their architect, the owners created a unique and eco home
The winners:
Jan & Diana Thompson for their Woodland Eco Home (main pic)
Have you completed a Passivhaus project in the last few years? Then get set to enter the Passivhaus Awards 2021 – the first since 2018. The Awards are open for entries right now, with the deadline of 20 April 2021 – enter here.
With the declaration of the climate emergency and the importance of building more sustainably, the need for better building has never been clearer.
The Passivhaus Trust, the organiser of the awards, states that it is estimated that construction the size of Paris will be built weekly for the next 40 years, and it’s imperative that we act now to ensure hat as much building is net-zero as possible. And building to Passivhaus standard is a great route for a self builder.
Passivhaus construction supports the delivery of net-zero by significantly reducing energy requirements and therefore the carbon emissions from houses.
The Passivhaus Trust has now been around for ten years, and the awards make a welcome return.
Homeowners, including retrofit properties can enter in three categories: Small Resdential (under 500m2) or Large Residential (500m2 and/or under 10 homes). There is also a Non-residential category.
There are strict eligibility requirements to ensure that projects meet the Passivhaus standards, including certification and proof of performance.
At the close of a difficult operating year, Build It magazine has celebrated the best products, businesses and projects a the Build It Awards 2020.
As with so much in 2020, the Build It Awards were hosted virtually, and you can still watch the awards ceremony online.
The National Custom and Self Build Association was please to see many of its members shortlisted and winning awards, and particularly wishes well done to Glasgow City Council for its inspiring work in custom and self build, and especially the MaryHill project. Have a look back to an interview at the very start of the project.
Among the highlights of the 2020 Build It Awards included A’Bear & Ball Architects stunning Chapel House and Strom Architects’ Island Rest home.
Best Architect or Designer for a Self Build Project Strom Architects – Island Rest
The judges were wowed by this elegant, low-impact design that disappears into its site and allows the stunning views to do the talking (main picture).
This luxurious contemporary home on the Isle of Wight was designed for an outdoorsy family with young children. The simple rectilinear layout gives every bedroom a sea view, with an open plan social space in the centre of the house.
Strom’s clean single-storey design and understated palette of black-stained larch and oiled oak creates a smart, modern look. It also helps the house to recede into the dark backdrop of the trees behind the plot. Part of the design cantilevers out from the sloping site on stilts, creating the illusion of the house floating over the landscape.
Best Self Build for Under £250k Frame Technologies – Birchfield
Birchfield by Frame Technologies won Best Self Build for Under £250k at the Build It Awards
Frame Technologies, a NaCSBA member, won the award for its Birchfield house, a three bedroom, two-storey cottage in Hereford. The custom-designed timber-frame home spans across a plot of 160m², centred around an open-plan living space.
The category looked for high-quality self build homes that represent great value-for-money and make the best use of the budget available. Homeowner Leanne Player had a strict budget and managed to build a high-quality contemporary home to meet her exact needs for a total build cost of around £170,000
Simon Orrells, Managing Director of Frame Technologies says: “Some people view self build as being prohibitively expensive but Birchfield challenges this notion and shows how a self builder has managed to build a home that meets their exact needs and lifestyle while keeping the costs low.”
Best Architect/Designer for a Renovation or Extension Project A’Bear & Ball Architects
Chapel House by A’Bear & Ball Architects, winner of the Best Architect/Designer for a Renovation or Extension Project at the Build It Awards 2020
Scoring highly with both the judges and the public… this is truly breathtaking project that combines a full refurbishment with a stunning contemporary extension that’s sympathetic to the original building.
In order to bring a contemporary touch to this 19th century Methodist chapel conversion, A’Ball & Bear Architects first had to remove the existing low-quality extension to reveal the original period detailing. They replaced this with an ultra-modern cedar and metal clad extension, creating a distinction between the old red brick building and new structure.
The building was fully renovated internally, enhancing the ecclesiastical detailing and original chapel features. A glazed link connects the old and new spaces, and the floorplan has been opened up to increase the sense of space.
Best SIPs Home Potton – The Jays
Best Heating System or Product Orangehouse Renewables – Water Source Heat Pump
Best Custom Build Project or Model Livedin – Ingoldisthorpe
Best Plumbing or Drainage System or Product Marley Plumbing & Drainage – Foundry Finish Rainwater System
Best Self Build for Under £250k Frame Technologies – Birchfield
Best Sustainable Technology or Product CorkSol UK – Thermocork
Best Off-Site Manufactured Home The Wee House Company – Wee House for David & Christine
Best Timber Frame Home Graven Hill & A’Bear & Ball Architects LLP – The Omotayo’s Home
Best Eco Home Buildakit – Toller Grove
Best Windows air – MOD Series
Best Oak Frame Home Complete Oak Home – Chiltern Cottage
Best Accessible and Inclusive Home lapd Architects – Greenfields
Best Council for Custom or Self Builders Glasgow City Council
Best Home Technology Product or Installation Baulogic – Baulogic Wired Smart Home System
Best Roofing System or Product Wallbarn – M-Tray Instant Green Roof System
Best ICF Home van Ellen + Sheryn – Beechwood
Best Joinery Product Kloepping TSS – Thatch Barn Staircase
Best Glazed Doors Express Bi-Folding Doors – XP Vision
Best Brick Home Northcot Brick – Northcot House
Best Self Build Lender Ecology Building Society
Best Self Build or Renovation Project Sharon & Martin Newman
Best Cladding System or Product Cupa Pizarras – Cupaclad Natural Slate Rainscreen Cladding System
Innovation in Insulation Core Conservation – TermoRasante AeroGel Thermal Lime Plaster
