Orchard House Highly Commended at the Sussex Heritage Trust Awards 2026

We're delighted to share that Orchard House — a coastal new-build in Birdham for which Fluid Glass supplied the complete glazing package — has been Highly Commended in the Small Scale Residential: New Build category at the Sussex Heritage Trust Awards 2026. The home was designed by Randell Design Group, and it's a real pleasure to see a project we cared so much about recognised.

Now in their 28th year, the Sussex Heritage Trust Awards celebrate excellence in conservation, craftsmanship and the sensitive design of new buildings across Sussex. The 2026 awards were presented on 8 July at the American Express Stadium in Brighton by the Trust's President, Lord Egremont DL, and Chairman, David Cowan. Orchard House was Highly Commended in the Small Scale Residential: New Build category — a contemporary farmhouse set within the Chichester Harbour Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, designed to sit quietly in its landscape and tread lightly on it.

The judges' comments captured exactly what the glazing set out to do:

"A really pleasing, satisfying and calming home, in harmony throughout the internal spaces, architecture and beautifully planted gardens. Exceptionally simple and coordinated detailing. The inside spaces really did connect to the outside. Wonderful." — Sussex Heritage Trust Awards 2026 judges

That connection between inside and outside is the whole point of how we approached the glazing — so to see it singled out means a great deal.

Fluid Glass supplied and installed the entire glazing package for Orchard House and its garden room — more than thirty door and window openings, held to a single, consistent specification across the whole house. Because the garden runs down to open water, everything was finished in a bespoke marine-grade matt near-black, chosen to hold its finish against salt-laden coastal air. The scheme brought together Fluid Timeless doors and windows on a disciplined glazing-bar module, a mullion-free corner window framing the meadow, and two Fluid X minimal sliding doors — the largest spanning just over six metres onto the garden, on a concealed hidden rail so the glass reads as an unbroken plane from floor to head. Designing, engineering, making and installing it as one package is what let the detailing stay this quiet and this coordinated.

Our thanks to Randell Design Group (lead architect Mara Fumanelli, interior designer Katie Underdown) for the vision and the invitation to be part of it; to West Sussex Carpentry & Building as main contractor; to Nicholas Dexter for the landscape design; and to Julia Toms for the photography. Congratulations, too, to Randell Design Group on their wider success at the 2026 awards.

You can explore the full glazing scheme, including the frameless corner window and the six-metre sliding doors, in our Orchard House case study. If you're planning a new build or a coastal project of your own, we'd love to help you get the glazing right from the first drawing.