A SUSSEX castle has been nominated for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) House of the Year award. 

In Grand Designs: House of the Year, which airs tonight on Channel 4, Kevin McCloud and his co-presenters, architect Damion Burrows, and design expert Michelle Ogundehin, visit five experimental homes battling it out for a place on the shortlist.

Each week he'll exclusively reveal which houses the RIBA judges have put through to the shortlist, and in the final programme announce the winner of this prestigious prize. 

One of the five "experimental homes" featured on the programme is a modern day six bedroom castle in Sussex.

The castle in Nithurst Farm is home to architect Adam Richards and his family, who revealed: "I've always loved old buildings, so it's great to be able to adapt them for today."

The Argus:

The six bedroom property was compared to "a modern house wrapped in a roman ruin" on the programme.

Created from 30,000 bricks, Adam used very thick mortar joins to created the illusion of using smaller bricks.

He said: "We've used very thick mortar joins to play a trick with the brick, they're normal size brick, but mortar is three times as big to suggests the bricks are tiny."

But his insistence on the authenticity of the build meant the builders couldn't lay the mortar for six months while they waited for the right weather.

It took two years from start to finish to build the house, with a concrete structure built before the bricks encased it.

Kevin called it a "modern concrete church", with a huge vaulted ceiling in the main room created a great hall.

Jessica said: "It was very important to balance the ideas with the practicalities of a family home."

The home also features two master bedrooms on the top floor as Adam is a snorer, while wife Jessica is a light sleeper.

A London garage transformed into a three-storey property and a home made from cork that's so light it could float away also made the shortlist.