{"id":210112,"date":"2025-10-19T02:39:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T02:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/210112\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T02:39:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T02:39:18","slug":"2025-riba-stirling-prize-goes-to-thoughtful-senior-housing-design-by-witherford-watson-mann-architects-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/210112\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 RIBA Stirling Prize goes to thoughtful senior housing design by Witherford Watson Mann Architects | News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize: Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects. Image credit: Philip Vile<\/p>\n

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New British architecture was celebrated today at the anticipated announcement of the 2025 RIBA Stirling Prize<\/a>: Appleby Blue Almshouse, a social housing complex for senior residents designed by Witherford Watson Mann Architects<\/a>, received the prestigious annual award as the “UK\u2019s best new building.” <\/p>\n

The development also managed to pick up this year’s RIBA Neave Brown Award for Housing.<\/p>\n

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Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects. Image credit: Philip Vile<\/p>\n

Located in London’s Southwark district, Appleby Blue replaces an abandoned care home with a contemporary reimagining of the traditional almshouse. Designed around a central garden courtyard, the 59-home development prioritizes community and connection through shared spaces, light-filled interiors, and biophilic design. <\/p>\n

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Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects. Image credit: Philip Vile<\/p>\n

Accessible, airy units open to terracotta-paved corridors and a roof
terrace, while timber-clad communal areas and a public “garden room” are designed to foster interaction between residents and the surrounding neighborhood. The jury praised the scheme as a “pioneering model for designing high-quality housing for later living, where care and dignity are embedded into the design throughout.”<\/p>\n

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Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects. Image credit: Philip Vile<\/p>\n

“This project is a clarion call for a new form of housing at a pivotal moment,” remarked Ingrid Schroder, 2025 RIBA Stirling chair and Director of the Architectural Association School of Architecture<\/a>. “Built against the backdrop of two crises, an acute housing shortage and a growing loneliness epidemic among older people, Appleby Blue offers a hopeful and imaginative response, where residents and the surrounding community are brought together through the transformative nature of the design.” <\/p>\n

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Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects. Image credit: Philip Vile<\/p>\n

Appleby Blue emerged from a six-project Stirling Prize shortlist announced in September<\/a> that also included high-profile designs such as Elizabeth Tower by Purcell, The Discovery Centre (DISC) by Herzog & de Meuron\/BDP, and\u00a0London College of Fashion by Allies and Morrison, as well as the stunning residential projects Niwa House by Takero Shimazaki Architects and Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects.<\/p>\n

This win follows last year’s Stirling Prize selection of the new Elizabeth Line project<\/a> for the London Underground by Grimshaw, Maynard, Equation, and AtkinsR\u00e9alis.<\/p>\n

Witherford Watson Mann Architects are no strangers to Royal Institute of British Architects awards: Appleby Blue took home a RIBA London Award<\/a> earlier this year, and their Nevill Holt Opera design was a finalist for the 2019 Stirling Prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Video courtesy RIBA\/YouTube<\/p>\n


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\t\tSimilar articles on Archinect that may interest you…<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" anchor Winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize: Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-210112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}