London housing project wins top architecture award

A suburban housing development in south London has won the UK's most prestigious architecture award, with judges praising its sensitive design and integration into the surrounding landscape.

Lion Green Road in Coulsdon, comprising 157 homes across five distinctive 13-sided blocks, was named winner of the 2026 Stirling Prize by the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba).

Designed by Mary Duggan Architects and built with RUFF Architects, it combines affordable and private housing for Croydon Council.

Replacing a former car park on a challenging, sloping site that varies in height by eight metres, Riba president Chris Williamson praised the design as a "new approach to higher density development" creating "a new connection between the bustling Lion Green Road and a distinctive area of green parkland beyond".

Williamson told the BBC that until he went to study architecture he lived in a council estate in the East Midlands, "and every time I go back there all the council houses have been sold off, they're in private hands.

"Which in a way can be a good thing - we're in a homeowning democracy - but the sad thing is they haven't been replaced.

"Every time I go back - without getting too emotional - I think 'where would we have lived?'

"So to me that's why this particular project was important. I think a lot of people from that sort of background live in terrible accommodaiton - temporary accommodation which isn't safe or secure.

"These houses are fantastic and they're part of a mixed scheme so it's got a fantastic feel to it.

"For me it was a very inspirational, emotional, part of the process."

Duggan, who was brought up in south-west London, said the scheme "challenged conventional suburban housing layouts centred on roads, private gardens and clearly defined front and back spaces".

Winding paths and planting weave between the blocks, connecting them and linking shared outdoor spaces.

She said she wanted it to be a public space people felt they could belong to.

"Housing needs to be progressive. People who live in the building have access to green space, allotments."

The site fronts onto Lion Green Road, with low-rise green belt housing set on higher ground to the south and traditional suburban streets to the north.