The fact that only a fifth of new homes in Britain are designed by an architect helps to explain why, in too many cases, their most striking feature is cookie-cutter blandness. Michael Manser, the late modernist architect after whom Britain’s most prestigious award for one-off homes was named, wanted to change that. And so do we, with The Sunday Times British Homes Awards, of which the Manser Medal now forms part. It aims to show not only mass housebuilders but all of us “how much better the housing of today could be — the 80% that is not designed by architects”, as Manser put it when launching the medal at the turn of the century. That still rings true today, as we try to build our…

Source: The Times April 28, 2018 23:03 UTC