Lochside House of Haysom Ward Millar is the RIBA 2018 House of the Year

A humble lakefront cottage in the Scottish Highlands has been designated as the best house in the UK in 2018.

Lochside House, a cottage designed by Haysom Ward Millar Architects, was selected from a list of seven projects selected to win the RIBA House Award of the Year.

The announcement was made during the last episode of the television series Grand Designs: The House of the Year Channel 4 tonight.

Cambridge-based Haysom Ward Millar Architects in Cambridge have designed this property as the home of a ceramic artist.

Comprising three modest buildings, the house is built from natural materials that complement its picturesque location.

The charred Scottish larch covers the exterior of the building, which is protected by a traditional dry stone wall. The interior is bright but understated, including oiled ceilings, a central fireplace and large windows with views of the lake and mountains.

The house is also off grid: it produces its own electricity from solar panels and draws clean water from its own borehole.

RIBA President Ben Derbyshire described the house as "the perfect complement to this dream landscape".

"Lochside House is truly breathtaking," he said.

"By limiting its scale, delicately placing the building harvest on a promontory around established trees and using local materials, HaysomWardMiller has created a home perfectly suited to its unique and exposed location."

The house was chosen for the RIBA House of the Year by a jury consisting of architects Takero Shimazaki, Niall Maxwell and Chantal Wilkinson, curator and journalist Laura Mark and engineer Paul Rogatzki.

Shimazaki described the building as "a well-designed home that is an example of humble, rooted, contextual but powerful architecture, to which people can aspire and be inspired".

"It is amazing that the remoteness and the harsh weather conditions have not prevented the client's vision from coming true," he said. "The off-grid solution of the architect seems almost effortless."

"Inside, the spaces merge with the artist's collection of art works. The comfort, warmth and friendliness are ubiquitous."

Lochside House is one of 20 houses featured in the Grand Designs: House of the Year series.

In four weeks, the list was reduced to seven. It was Old Shed New House, a house built as part of an old barn by Tonkin Liu, and Red House, a London terrace with a facade. decorative relief of 31/44 architects.

Previous winners of the prize include a "malice box" in Edinburgh and a country house in Norfolk coated with flint.