Award for house with no soul

Sir – With reference to your article (WHT, June 3) on the award winning house at Pipers End, having lived until fairly recently in Pipers End for 40 years, I feel I must comment. It appears that the Royal Institute of British Architects bases its awards

Sir - With reference to your article (WHT, June 3) on the award winning house at Pipers End, having lived until fairly recently in Pipers End for 40 years, I feel I must comment.

It appears that the Royal Institute of British Architects bases its awards solely on the architecture of a building and totally disregards whether it is in keeping with its environment. The house at Pipers End may be architecturally outstanding but it is out of place in a small country hamlet. The planning department of EHDC should be ashamed for failing to protect a rural idyll.

Pipers End is the wrong location for this ultra modern house.

I would also like to comment on your statement that "the architect turned the house from a dilapidated farmhouse to a stylish building."

Firstly, was it a farmhouse? I have always understood it was a pub or ale house many years ago. Secondly, the new house is some yards from the original which is now demolished but your article gives the impression that the old house was converted to a stunning, stylish building.

The new house is soulless whereas the old house had character, history and if the walls could have spoken many a tale to tell.

But it was not ECO FRIENDLY, so it had to go!

Joan Wheatley, Letty Green, Hertford.