Lion Green Road housing scheme wins RIBA Stirling Prize 2026

London's Lion Green Road housing scheme has won the RIBA Stirling Prize 2026, awarded annually to the UK's best new building. The Royal Institute of British Architects announced the winner at a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London this evening.

The project, in Coulsdon, south London, was designed by local studios Mary Duggan Architects with Ruff Architects and commissioned by Croydon Council. It provides 157 homes across five blocks, stitched together by shared green spaces. It is only the fourth housing scheme to win the prize in its 30-year history, after Accordia in Cambridge (2008), Goldsmith Street in Norwich (2019) and Appleby Blue Almshouse in London (2025).

What did the jury say?

The jury praised the architects for "addressing the pressing need for national housing" and delivering environmentally considerate homes with ample access to light, nature and community.

"More than a housing development, the scheme has created a welcoming and inclusive place where people can connect with one another, and with nature," read the citation.

RIBA president Chris Williamson said the scheme shows how high-density housing "can be achieved without compromising the quality of the places we create". "Through a consistent specification, with subtle variation in height and orientation, it offers housing at scale without uniformity," he said.

Williamson went further in his assessment: "The architects have created a new kind of garden neighbourhood that balances privacy and generous views with a strong connection to nature – it's a living landscape." He called it "thoughtful, resourceful architecture that proves that even the most challenging of sites can be transformed into truly distinctive places for people to call home".

How does the design work?

The site itself was the hard part. Lion Green Road occupies a steeply sloped plot in Coulsdon that was previously a car park. The five blocks, mixing private and socially rented homes, are staggered across the slope.

Each block has a faceted, star-shaped plan (a floor layout with angled wings rather than a simple rectangle). The architects rotated these plans so every home is dual-aspect (with windows on two sides), maximising natural light and offering unique views across the landscape.

Three complementary brick types clad the buildings, visually unifying the blocks while giving each its own character. Shared outdoor spaces weave through the site, giving residents places to meet.

What does this change for housing?

The win marks the second consecutive year the Stirling Prize has gone to housing, after Appleby Blue Almshouse took the 2025 award — a result that drew criticism over London bias, with four of six shortlisted buildings in the capital. Lion Green Road is also a London project, chosen from a six-strong shortlist revealed in July. Back-to-back housing wins suggest RIBA's juries now weigh social value and housing delivery heavily against the museums and infrastructure that dominated recent years, including the Elizabeth Line in 2024 and the New Library at Magdalene College in 2022.

RIBA also announced four Special Awards at the ceremony:

• RIBA Neave Brown Award for Housing: Satish Jassal Architects for Rowan Court, brick-clad social housing blocks in Seven Sisters.
• RIBA Reinvention Award: Samuel Chisholm Studio and Takero Shimazaki for Oru Sutton, a co-working space in an old department store.
• RIBA Client of the Year Award: Tonkin Liu Architects, for the York Minster Centre of Excellence.
• RIBA Conservation Award and RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize: Architectural Thread for The Buttermarket, an arts-focused community hub in Cornwall.

Whether the pattern holds, the message from this year's jury is clear: a former car park in Croydon can now stand as the UK's benchmark for what new housing should aspire to.