DARTINGTON architects Bedford and Jobson have just scooped a double award for a new home made of earth.

The architects' team has just completed work on the Queen of Crime Agatha Christie's home at Greenway working with the National Trust on the house itself and outbuildings.

But the two awards came for the four to five-bedroom home on the banks of the River Dart at Dittisham built in traditional Devon style from cob using earth dug up just feet from where the walls were going up.

Architects Paul Bedford and Barry Jobson were awarded the Local Authority Building Control award for the best 'vernacular' building in the South West for the unique building.

They also came away with the Devon Building Control Partnership award for quality and sustainability for the same house.

Paul explained that while 'earth buildings' were once constructed all over Britain the tradition carried on longer in Devon and because of the county's soil, they lasted longer.

The county still boasts the largest number of cob buildings in the country and there are 10,000 such listed buildings nationwide.

"Obviously it goes without saying that it is nice to win an award," said Paul. "What is good about these is that they recognise what a traditional and iconic material cob is for Devon and how it is being used in a contemporary and sustainable way. It is a traditional building material but is appropriate for the future.

"There is no other material that you can say is dug from the ground that the house is built on."

The architects teamed up with East Devon cob builder Kevin McCabe to begin the award-winning Dittisham home in late 2006 with the aim of replacing a 'tired' bungalow with something 'modern and efficient that would fit in and do justice to the stunning location', said Paul.

"The new home has great low energy credentials with limewashed walls made of cob dug from the site, roofed with recycled Cornish slates on oak-framing from local trees and fitted with a ground source heat pump for hot water and underfloor heating," he added.

Across the river at Greenway, Bedford and Jobson have been working with the National Trust since 2001 on the project to restore the estate, outbuildings and the house itself.

Here they commissioned Mr McCabe to make a cob feature wall by the new visitor building.

The practice has been based in Dartington for the last 10 years and numbers up to five architects specialising in the repair and reuse of old buildings and modern low energy houses.