Mole Architects is an award-winning architectural practice founded in 1997. The practice has gained increasing notice for its particular brand of sustainable modern contextual design, specialising in houses and house design, and has won many national awards for excellence for both private and affordable house design, including winning the RIBA Manser Medal for the best house in the UK, the Daily Telegraph award for best house, the Ideal Home Show Blue Ribbon Award, and the Housing Excellence Award for best affordable development. From The Black House in the Cambridgeshire Fens (featured in the V&A architecture gallery) to the Living Architecture collaboration with MVRDV on the Balancing Barn, the practice has been marked out by its distinctiveness, its originality and personality. The practice produces buildings that are ‘not just green but gorgeous’ (Elle Decoration), recognising the genuine commitment to cutting edge sustainability as well as a playful tone, a joy in the process of building something beautiful and an innovative and collaborative spirit. Mole is the only practice to have been shortlisted more than once for the RIBA Manser Medal, given to the best overall one-off house in the UK, having been shortlisted three times, and winning in 2002. In 2012 Mole were chosen by The University of Cambridge from 350 architects to be one of 10 architects to design Phase 1 of a £1 billion expansion in northwest Cambridge. Mole’s graduate housing and health centre is due for completion in 2016. Mole have been described by the Sunday Telegraph as ‘one of Britain’s 20 top-notch architects’, and by the Sunday Times as one of the ‘top 10 architect provocateurs’.
