Riba Stirling Prize 2025: Appleby Blue Almshouse named Britain’s best new building

A modern answer to the traditional almshouse, designed to combat loneliness, has won a prestigious architecture award for Britain’s best new building.

Appleby Blue Almshouse, which provides affordable flats for over-65s in Southwark, south London, has won this year’s Royal Institute of British Architects’ (Riba) Stirling Prize.

The complex, in Bermondsey, has 59 flats plus communal facilities, including a roof garden, courtyard and community kitchen.

The Stirling Prize judges said it “sets an ambitious standard for social housing among older people”.