The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has revealed the long list for its RIBA House of the Year Award 2016, the most prestigious award in the UK for a new house or extension.

Among the 20 homes designed by architects in the running for the award, there are: a house in Cornwall that hovers dramatically over a cliff to take in the enviable views across the Fal Estuary (The Owers House), a stunning beach house in Dungeness that echoes the areas former fishing huts, an ingenious and contemporary take on a traditional lean-to in Harrogate (Contemporary Lean To), a new family home in Jersey rising from the huge granite walls of an earlier building on the site (Le Petit Fort), a Japanese inspired terraced house extension (House of Trace) and a contemporary part-house part-gallery on the beach in Brighton & Hove (The Narrow House).

The RIBA House of the Year Award is sponsored by Hiscox & Paint and Paper Library and will be broadcast on Channel 4 as part of a special Grand Designs series, presented by Kevin McCloud.

Produced by ‘Boundless’, the Grand Designs: House of the Year, is now in its second year and will be broadcast every week for four weeks later in the year.

It will feature a variety of properties from the 20 long list for the most prestigious new house award in the UK, with the shortlisted homes and winners to be revealed.

Last year’s award went to Flint House in Buckinghamshire, which was built in 2014 and was designed by Skene Catling de la Pena.

Surrounded by ploughed fields, the house is a seam of flint geology with flints resting on the surface.

The conception of the project was two wedges of that geology coming up through the flat landscape, with their bases made of knapped flint. They gradually change in texture and construction until they become chalk walling and dissolve into the sky.