This summer, Design Trawler was invited by the Evening Standard join the Judging Panel for the annual New Homes Awards. The most prestigious trophy in the business, shortlisted homes were presided over by trendsetters, tastemakers and arbiters of taste across twelve categories.
Presiding over 'Best Apartment' and 'Best Luxury' - everything from Mayfair duplexes owned by the Crown Estate, to New York style lofts were subject to the scrutiny of Design Trawler. Click below to find out who took home the silver, and why Design Trawler won't be getting a Christmas Card from Buckingham Palace.
Culminating in a final showdown at Dorcherster Hotel, the silver had to go to an archetypal 'grand design' penthouse in Clerkenwell by Form Design Architecture [Best Apartment, above] and a cheeky little £40m Regency townhouse [Best Luxury] with three kitchens, a ballroom and a master bedroom 'floor' with separate his & hers en-suite bathrooms, corresponding dressing rooms and sun room.
At the risk of upsetting Her Majesty, the triplex Mayfair penthouse submitted by the Crown for both categories, wasn't awarded but was certainly still noteworthy. A restrained statement of modern style, the apartment which is available for rent [because we'd all like to be able to say we're staying at Her Majesty's
Land owners who will be upset however, and rightly so, were some of the blue chip housebuilders who, despite equally blue chip money spent on leather-bound tomes of application material, didn't impress. Sardine-tin identikit apartment units with far too many en-suites, far too few windows and the unforgivable sin of kitchens shunted on to a living room wall and Asia-exclusive sales.
Teaching them a lesson, the final coup of the evening, the
