LONDON.- The longlist for the UK’s foremost private housing design award have been revealed today (Thursday 19 June) by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

23 stunning homes form the 2014 longlist for the RIBA Manser Medal, in association with Hiscox, for the best new house or major extension in the UK.

Highlights from across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland include:

• Farningham House Cottage by Emrys Architects - the subtle unification, though the use of glazed corridor forms, of a traditional cottage with outhouse and stable block in the picturesque Kent village of Farningham

• High Edge by Evans Vettori - a contemporary take on the Swiss chalet, overlooking the River Derwent in England's ‘Little Switzerland’

• House No 7 by Denizen Works - the restoration and utilitarian agricultural-inspired extension of a listed Tiree black-house that hunkers down to provide a light, bright, welcoming and cosy home on the exposed Isle of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides

• The Kench by MELOY Architects - a modest beach house with commanding views on Hayling Island in Hampshire, which appears to float above the existing ground levels to avoid flooding risk

• Lens House by Alison Brooks Architects - the restoration and contemporary extension of a Victorian villa in north London - invisible from the street but when viewed from the garden looks like ‘an otherworldly masterpiece’

• Loughloughan Barn by McGarry-Moon Architects - a modernised barn loyal to its pastoral surrounds, made of stone, timber, glass and zinc, in County Antrim with views of Slemish Mountain

• Stormy Castle by Loyn & Co Architects - a modern castle in a stunning Gower peninsula-setting

• Tree House by 6a Architects -an elegant extension wrapping around a tree in the garden of a grade II listed 1830s brick weavers’ cottage in east London

• Westering by Annie Martin Architect - a comforting cedar and granite clad bling-less home in the dramatic surroundings of Dartmoor National Park

• Wildfowl Cottage by 5th Studio - a brave rescue of a listed waterside inn in Cambridge that includes an innovative new response to flood risk