York Design Awards: city architect Phil scoops hat-trick of awards

Phil Bixby picked up not only the Lord Mayor’s Award for best overall project at this year’s York Design Awards, but also the sustainability award and an award for small residential development for the extension of his own house near Hob Moor.

Phil bought the Victorian end-terrace in 2017, and has since extended and modernised it.

The extension was built from timber and features triple glazing, internal and external insulation, a ‘green roof’ and a solar panel array on the end gable.

Phil Bixby outside his extended home - featuring a solar array on a gable wall - near Hob Moor in York (Image: Duncan Lomax/ Ravage Productions)

His house illustrates the ‘green’ principle of living near where you work – it is, he jokes, only a three-step ‘commute’ to work across a small internal courtyard to reach his office every morning.

The design also features large amounts of glass looking it onto a ‘wildflower meadow’ in the garden.

Phil, who helped lead the initial public consultation for the huge York Central project and is a driving force behind plans for a small, co-owned community on the York Central site, said he was pleased his conversion and extension of his own home along green principles had caught the Design Awards judges’ eyes.

“It’s nice to get some awards!” he said. “Hopefully it shows that there are other ways of building. It wasn’t just about saving energy, but trying to create a house which is comfortable to live in.”

Design Awards chair Ann Reid said she was delighted Phil had won. “He has spent all his working life in York and has championed sustainable development,” she said.

York Design Awards chair Ann Reid (Image: Supplied)

Each year, the York Design Awards aim to celebrate the best in design in building, conservation and public space projects in York.

Every one of the entries each year is visited by a panel of distinguished architects, who select winners across a range of categories.

Other winners on awards night at the York St John University Creative Centre earlier this month included All Saints Church in North Street for its project to preserve the famous, medieval ‘Pricke of the Conscience’ window; the ‘Wonderlab’ at the National Railway Museum; the Brainkind Neurological Centre; and the conversion of Victorian Heworth House in Melrosegate into six flats.

Detail from the 'Pricke of Conscience' window at All Saints Church (Image: Supplied)

Ms Reid said: “The quality and variety of entries was great, from the Terry’s clock to a play area. It shows that we really care about design in York.”