An almshouse in south London, homes built by a community land trust in Lewisham and an affordable housing initiative in Hackney are among the projects shortlisted for one of Britain’s most prestigious architecture prizes.
The Neave Brown Award for Housing 2025 is run by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to reward the UK’s best new affordable housing, amid a raging housing crisis that shows little sign of abating.
Named after the modernist architect who was a pioneer of social housing, the annual award is this year focusing on projects using "exceptional design to address wider social and environmental issues, placing people and communities at the heart of their work”.
Appleby Blue Almshouse, in Southwark, addresses increased isolation in older people through shared spaces that encourage chance meetings and places to socialise, alongside its 59 apartments with rents capped at social housing levels.
The reinterpretation of a traditional almshouse on a site formerly owned by the council and occupied by a disused care home was delivered by a development partnership between Southwark Council, the developer JTRE London and United St Saviour’s Charity and aims to offer high-quality social collective housing for older people.
Meanwhile, a Lewisham project of just 11 flats in which one-bedroom homes are priced at £215,000 and two-beds at £272,500 is also nominated.
Citizen’s House, where the prices of flats are linked to local wages rather than the local housing market (putting them at 65 per cent of the neighbourhood’s market value), emerged from a local campaign to establish community land trust (CLT) homes on surplus council land. .
Unsurprisingly, there were 400 applicants for the scheme when it launched after a campaign in newspapers and on social media.
The RIBA jury complimented the aesthetics of the project, noting that “the homes are bright and flexible, with floor-to-ceiling windows, large balconies, and filled with natural light.”
Another London entrant on the shortlist is Tower Court, in Hackney, which is part of a council-owned scheme to deliver affordable housing across 18 estates in the London borough. The goal of the design was to make use of a “vigorous” collaboration with landscape architects so that the building and outdoor spaces were conceived as one. The 132 homes are provided for a mix of social rent, shared ownership and outright sale, with the social rent provision focusing on large family homes.
“Residents speak of children mixing and playing together, with older children supervising the younger ones," the jury said.
Finally, the UK’s largest completed cohousing development, Hazelmead, on the outskirts of Bridport and nestled in the Dorset AONB, has also been shortlisted. Made up of 53 climate-resilient homes, as well as a common house and shared green spaces, the scheme aims to create a multi-generational, mixed-tenure neighbourhood for affordable, community-focused and sustainable living.
Noting that the project has achieved net zero carbon in operation, the RIBA jury said: "Sustainability is writ large throughout the development. Built with low-carbon materials, it balances affordability, beauty and practicality.”
Dean Pike, the chair of the award’s jury and founding director of Al-Jawad Pike, said this year’s shortlist “reflects the enduring relevance of Neave Brown’s vision – that housing should foster community, offer dignity, and be rooted in place.”
“Through careful detailing, low-impact construction, and a close reading of context, [the nominees] show what can be achieved within the constraints of contemporary housing delivery – affirming Neave Brown’s belief in housing as a civic, generous, and transformative architecture,” he said.
In 2017, just three months before he died, Brown won the UK’s highest honour for architecture, RIBA’s Royal Gold Medal, for the brutalist Alexandra Road Estate in Camden.
The winners of the Neave Brown Award will be announced live at the Stirling Prize ceremony in London on October 16, alongside the winners of several other awards.
This includes the Stephen Lawrence Prize, for which the shortlist has also been revealed to include the UK’s first rewilding project, Knepp Wilding Kitchen and shop, and a conservation project at the former home of both George Frideric Handel and Jimi Hendrix in London.
The Stephen Lawrence Award, now in its 27th year, celebrates early career architectural projects in memory of the teenager and aspiring architect who was the victim of a fatal racially motivated attack in 1993.
