{"id":930179,"date":"2026-10-16T11:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T11:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930179\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T11:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T11:02:15","slug":"london-housing-project-wins-top-architecture-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930179\/","title":{"rendered":"London housing project wins top architecture award"},"content":{"rendered":"

A suburban housing development in south London has won the UK’s most prestigious architecture award, with judges praising its sensitive design and integration into the surrounding landscape.<\/p>\n

Lion Green Road in Coulsdon, comprising 157 homes across five distinctive 13-sided blocks, was named winner of the 2026 Stirling Prize by the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba).<\/p>\n

Designed by Mary Duggan Architects and built with RUFF Architects, it combines affordable and private housing for Croydon Council.<\/p>\n

Replacing a former car park on a challenging, sloping site that varies in height by eight metres, Riba president Chris Williamson praised the design as a “new approach to higher density development” creating “a new connection between the bustling Lion Green Road and a distinctive area of green parkland beyond”.<\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/p>\n

Mary Duggan said Lion Green Road was a project “about the culture of dwelling” [BBC]<\/p>\n

Duggan said the win was “extraordinary, unexpected and humbling”.<\/p>\n

“Lion Green Road began in 2016 with a very clear vision, to create genuinely non-institutional housing and to think differently about what affordable housing could offer communities.<\/p>\n

“We think of Lion Green Road as a project about the culture of dwelling… architectural ambition, social value and social realities can co-exist.”<\/p>\n

\"Riba<\/p>\n

Riba president Chris Williamson said the judging process was “inspirational and emotional” [BBC]<\/p>\n

Williamson told the BBC that until he went to study architecture he lived in a council estate in the East Midlands, “and every time I go back there all the council houses have been sold off, they’re in private hands.<\/p>\n

“Which in a way can be a good thing – we’re in a homeowning democracy – but the sad thing is they haven’t been replaced.<\/p>\n

“Every time I go back – without getting too emotional – I think ‘where would we have lived?’<\/p>\n

“So to me that’s why this particular project was important. I think a lot of people from that sort of background live in terrible accommodation – temporary accommodation which isn’t safe or secure.<\/p>\n

“These houses are fantastic and they’re part of a mixed scheme so it’s got a fantastic feel to it.<\/p>\n

“For me it was a very inspirational, emotional, part of the process.”<\/p>\n

Duggan, who was brought up in south-west London, said the scheme “challenged conventional suburban housing layouts centred on roads, private gardens and clearly defined front and back spaces”.<\/p>\n

Winding paths and planting weave between the blocks, connecting them and linking shared outdoor spaces.<\/p>\n

She said she wanted it to be a public space people felt they could belong to.<\/p>\n

“Housing needs to be progressive. People who live in the building have access to green space, allotments.”<\/p>\n

The site fronts onto Lion Green Road, with low-rise green belt housing set on higher ground to the south and traditional suburban streets to the north.<\/p>\n

\"Low<\/p>\n

Lion Green Road comprises 157 homes across five distinctive 13-sided blocks. [RIBA]<\/p>\n

Nestled amongst trees on the edge of green-belt land, the development’s soft purple and pink brickwork blends high-density housing into an area of natural beauty.<\/p>\n

At a time when housing developments are often judged by their cost and number of homes they can deliver, the project was recognised for the way it responds to its surroundings.<\/p>\n

Williamson said “the housing blocks blend into the parkland beyond, while small variations in pattern add texture and give each building its own identity.”<\/p>\n

He added: “The way it fits into the hillside – it doesn’t look like a large housing scheme.<\/p>\n

“It has community gardens, it’s the sort of place I would have liked to have grown up in.”<\/p>\n

\"Low<\/p>\n

Winding paths and planting weave between the blocks [Lorenzo Zandri]<\/p>\n

The project was funded by Croydon Council as a public asset, and a change in building regulations meant it “fought against five or six circumstantial elements beyond the normal challenges”.<\/p>\n

The building was praised by the jury for its “inventive and site-specific response to a highly constrained plot”.<\/p>\n

Buildings are assessed across a range of criteria, including design vision, innovation, sustainability, functionality, and the ability to delight users and visitors.<\/p>\n

\"Low<\/p>\n

The project was funded by Croydon Council as a public asset [Lorenzo Zandri]<\/p>\n

The other finalists:<\/p>\n

A house at\u202fFairmead, High Beach, Epping Forest\u202fby Sergison Bates<\/p>\n

BEAM, Hertfordshire, by Bennetts Associates<\/p>\n

Paddington Square by Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Paris) in collaboration with Adamson Associates (London)<\/p>\n

Pembroke, Mill Lane\u202fby Haworth Tompkins<\/p>\n

River Wing, Clare College by Witherford Watson Mann Architects<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A suburban housing development in south London has won the UK’s most prestigious architecture award, with judges praising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-930179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}