Here are images of the four projects that have been shortlisted for this year's Manser Medal, an award given by the RIBA for the best new house or extension in the UK. Above: Kander House, London by Jamie Fobert Architects (photos by Sue Barr)

Above: The Salt House, St Lawrence Bay, Essex by Alison Brooks Architects (photos by Cristobal Palma)

Above: New Dwelling, Randalstown, County Antrim by Alan Jones Architects

Above: Dowling House, Cultra, County Down by Hackett + Hall

Details of the award and more images of the four projects follow:

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RIBA announces shortlist for the Manser Medal for the UK's best home

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) today announces the shortlist for the Manser Medal, sponsored by The Rooflight Company. The award is given for the best one-off house or major extension designed by an architect in the UK.

A modernist seaside house in Essex and a transformed Victorian semi-detached are both competing for this year’s Manser Medal, along with two houses from Northern Ireland.

One is an architects’ family home, unusually clad all over in a “fibre-cement suit of armour" and the other a reinvention of the Victorian villa for the twenty-first century.

The shortlist was drawn from the RIBA Award-winning buildings which were announced earlier this year in May. The Manser Medal winner will be announced and presented alongside five other special awards, at the RIBA Stirling Prize Dinner on Saturday 6 October at The Roundhouse, London.

The shortlist for the Manser Medal 2007 is:
Dowling House, Cultra, County Down by Hackett + Hall
Kander House, London by Jamie Fobert Architects
New Dwelling, Randalstown, County Antrim by Alan Jones Architects
The Salt House, St Lawrence Bay, Essex by Alison Brooks Architects