LOOK out Grand Designs - an Alvechurch family’s home has been been awarded a prestigious building design award.

The Drift, a contemporary house with floor to ceiling glazed gables in Rowney Green Lane, has won Best Individual New Home for architect Andrea Millner, in the Local Authority Building Control (LABC) awards West of England region.

It is the home of Ian and Sadie Dykes and their children who bought the site of The Drift, when it was a tired looking 1970s four-bedroomed house.

They wanted an extension to create an extra bedroom but their builder suggested that the existing house could be demolished and replaced with a brand new home with six ensuite bedrooms and an upstairs study for very little cost difference.

Mrs Dykes said: “I’d found a picture in a magazine of a house we really liked and asked Andrea to design something like it.

“She was great at interpreting what we wanted – and she has created our ideal home for our family to grow up in.”

The Drift, which has been hailed by planners as a shining beacon of modern design, incorporating green conservation techniques that still deliver the wow factor.

It is an imposing, individual, oak-clad home with trademark vaulted ceilings and trusses of walnut and stainless steel

Mrs Dykes, who has been living there for one year now, added: “Our family home is magical. And to know that it is also an award winner is wonderful.

“The children are so proud they took the award to show their friends and teachers at Crown Meadow First School.”

Andrea said: "I do try to add the wow factor to all of the projects I work on – often vaulted ceilings and lots of light – but it always has to be in a way that helps a house to flow well and to work on a practical level."