WW2 German bunker house conversion up for award

Bunker owner Jason Mitchell said he was proud of the renovation

A four-year project to convert a World War Two bunker into a three-bedroom house is up for an architectural award.

The personnel bunker, in St Pierre du Bois, Guernsey, was built by the German occupying forces during World War Two and housed 12 soldiers.

Owner Jason Mitchell has included original features like door hinges and valves and created tube skylights through the 2m (6ft 6in) thick concrete ceiling for natural light.

He said: "It's quite amazing really, it's not until you go back inside and see everything that you've done you realise the work that has gone into it."

The original bunker now makes up the centre of the house

Mr Mitchell tried to keep many of the original features

Mr Mitchell purchased the bunker with a friend in 2017.

They wanted to make use of a recent policy change to encourage development of redundant buildings as part of moves to deal with a lack of available housing.

Since completing the project, the property has been on sale for about a year.

Having completed the conversion the property was put on the market

Mr Mitchell said: "There was quite a few challenges, I think the first one was cutting the concrete out, we had to cut out 145 tonne of concrete, then we had to seal it up from the inside.

"As time went on new challenges came along because nobody had really done it to this extent before."

Some of the removed concrete has been displayed at the front of the house to show the depth of what had to be taken out of the bunker.

Work was ongoing for four years

Mr Mitchell worked with architectural firm A7 Architecture, which believes it is the first German bunker conversion in the British Isles.

He said "it's quite amazing" the house has been entered for an international award.

The Architectural Technology Awards take place later in London.