{"id":505381,"date":"2025-10-16T23:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T23:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/505381\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T23:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T23:37:15","slug":"hopeful-and-imaginative-retirement-housing-wins-top-uk-architecture-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/505381\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Hopeful and imaginative\u2019 retirement housing wins top UK architecture prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

Retirement housing may not seem the sexiest branch of architecture. Yet it is exactly what won architects Witherford Watson Mann this year\u2019s Riba Stirling Prize, the UK\u2019s most prestigious architectural award.<\/p>\n

But then Appleby Blue, the vertical reinterpretation of an almshouse on London\u2019s busy Southwark Park Road, is not at all what you would expect from elder housing. This is no suburban, low-density banality of lawns and lino but a solid, brick building with real presence and charisma in the streetscape. Unashamedly urban.<\/p>\n

Instead of assuming that older people would like to be put out to pasture, it suggests they might be happier in the streets they are familiar with and with all the amenities the capital has to offer.<\/p>\n

\"AThe courtyard features timber facades, trees and a central water feature \u00a9 Philip Vile\/RIBA\"AnThe garden terrace has raised concrete planters with lush greenery \u00a9 Philip Vile\/RIBA<\/p>\n

Appleby Blue also manages to be light, generous and green, its centre characterised by a capacious courtyard with trees and shrubs and a verdant roof terrace. The apartments may be relatively minimal \u2014 this is London after all \u2014 but the corridors which connect them are nothing like the institutional, strip-lit dead zones you might expect. Instead they are accessed via broad walkways with benches looking on to the courtyard, generous communal spaces intended to nurture everyday interaction. A large space used for dining and events has its glazing directly on to the street so that the building becomes part of the city rather than a retreat.<\/p>\n

Witherford Watson Mann was a surprise Stirling Prize winner back in 2013, when it created a holiday destination with its remarkable restoration of the ruins of Astley Castle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking on behalf of the jury, Ingrid Schroder, director of London\u2019s Architectural Association, said Appleby Blue\u2019s architects had \u201ccrafted high-quality spaces that are generous and thoughtful, blending function and community to create environments that truly care for their residents\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project is a clarion call for a new form of housing at a pivotal moment,\u201d she continued. \u201cBuilt 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"OpenThe development has an open dining area \u00a9 Philip Vile\/RIBA\"TheAnd large wooden-framed bay windows feature \u00a9 Philip Vile\/RIBA<\/p>\n

The architects won against a shortlist which included Swiss giants Herzog & de Meuron for the Discovery Centre, AstraZeneca\u2019s huge R&D facility in Cambridge, Purcell for their restoration of Palace of Westminster\u2019s Elizabeth Tower \u2014 colloquially known as Big Ben \u2014 and Allies and Morrison\u2019s substantial London College of Fashion in Stratford, east London. Also on the list were a couple of smaller domestic projects: the renovation and extension of a Victorian house set into a hillside in Hastings by Hugh Strange, and Niwa House by Takero Shimazaki which brings a Japanese sensibility to a south London site. <\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s prize went to the Elizabeth Line<\/a>, a piece of infrastructure once much-criticised for being overdue and over budget which now looks indispensable and visionary. The shift this year to the UK\u2019s perennial housing problem throws a spotlight on not only the integration of communities but also the dire quality of most contemporary housing design.<\/p>\n

Witherford Watson Mann\u2019s Appleby Blue is a reaction to the inane suburbanity and car-centred development which still makes up the bulk of British housing, and to the clunky investment towers continuing to blight the city centres.<\/p>\n

The building, managed by United St Saviour\u2019s Charity, follows and restores the line of the old high street, repairing the cityscape and making housing a civic as well as a domestic concern. It would be good to think this prize might encourage other, more sophisticated housing interventions \u2014 it is a very fine role model indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-505381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115386479381273397","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}