A Housing Project in South London Wins the UK's Top Architecture Prize

A housing development in south London has won the Stirling Prize, the UK's most prestigious architecture award. BBC News reports that Lion Green Road in Coulsdon has 157 homes in five unusual 13-sided blocks. The Royal Institute of British Architects, or Riba, named it the winner for 2026, and judges praised its sensitive design and how it fits into the landscape. Mary Duggan Architects designed it, with RUFF Architects, for Croydon Council, and it mixes affordable and private homes.

It replaced a car park on a sloping site that varies in height by eight meters (26 feet). Riba president Chris Williamson called it a "new approach to higher density development" that creates a new link between a busy street and green parkland behind it. Soft purple and pink brickwork helps the blocks blend in with the trees at the edge of green-belt land, and small changes in the pattern give each building its own look. Winding paths and planting weave between the blocks, with community gardens and allotments.

Architect Mary Duggan called the win "extraordinary, unexpected and humbling." The project began in 2016 with a clear aim: to create housing that does not feel like an institution and to think differently about what affordable homes can offer a community. She said it challenges the usual suburban layout of roads, private gardens and clear front and back spaces. She wanted a public space where people feel they belong.

Williamson said that he grew up in a council estate in the East Midlands, and that many of those homes have since been sold and not replaced. He said projects like this matter because many people from such backgrounds live in poor temporary housing. For him, he said, the process was inspirational and emotional. He added that the scheme does not look like a large housing project, and that it is the sort of place he would have liked to grow up in.

The project was paid for by Croydon Council as a public asset. A change in building rules meant the team had to deal with several extra challenges beyond the normal ones.