Emmett Scanlon discusses award-winning architect Dominic Stevens’ innovative approach to contemporary vernacular design

The Kevin Kieran Award was established jointly by the Arts Council and the Office of Public Works to honour the work of Kevin Kieran, the first architectural adviser to the Arts Council. It is an award of two parts; the first, a bursary of 50,000 from the Arts Council, enables the recipient to conduct new research in an elective area of contemporary architecture. In 2005 Dominic Stevens received the eponymous award and his perceptive research, which is both built and theoretical, is being compiled in a book entitled Rural, to be published in spring 2007. In 2006 he completed his ‘Mimetic House’ seen here, for the artists Grace Weir and Joe Walker