RIBA announces 2025 award winners
The RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 has been awarded to Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, a pioneering model for housing in later life that reimagines the centuries-old almshouse for the 21st century. Replacing a disused care home in Southwark, the scheme’s terracotta walkways, generous communal spaces, and street-facing bay windows foster connection while restoring dignity to older residents. With its warm material palette and quietly radical plan, Appleby Blue demonstrates how architecture can combat isolation through thoughtful design and civic care.
This year’s other RIBA awards further celebrate architecture’s social conscience: St. Mary’s Walthamstow by Matthew Lloyd Architects received the Stephen Lawrence Prize; Appleby Blue Almshouse also earned the Neave Brown Award for Housing; its client, United St Saviour’s Charity, was named Client of the Year; and Sheerness Dockyard Church by Hugh Broughton Architects won the Reinvention Award for transforming a fire-damaged ruin into a vibrant community space.
Appleby Blue Almshouse, Witherford Watson Mann Architects, Southwark, London
Stirling Prize 2025
Winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025, Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects redefines what housing for later life can be. Built on the site of a former care home in Southwark, the project offers 57 social-rent apartments for residents over 65, designed to nurture connection and independence equally.
The architects have inverted the traditional almshouse layout, placing generous communal spaces — a double-height garden room, kitchen, and shared terraces — at its core to encourage chance encounters and shared meals. Wide, terracotta-paved galleries, lined with planters and benches, replace corridors with streets in the sky, while bay windows overlooking the high street subtly dissolve boundaries between residents and the wider community.
Behind its brick facade lies a warm, timber-clad interior that feels domestic rather than institutional. Every element, from the discreet accessibility details to the open sightlines across the complex, reflects a deep understanding of ageing as a social, not solitary, condition. Appleby Blue sets a new benchmark for civic-minded architecture, and stands as proof that beauty and dignity belong at the heart of social housing.
Stephen Lawrence Prize 2025
The winner of the Stephen Lawrence Prize 2025 is St. Mary’s Walthamstow by Matthew Lloyd Architects.
‘St Mary’s, the oldest and — with its Grade II* listed status — most protected building in Walthamstow, has been sensitively repaired and transformed into a flexible, inclusive and welcoming space for the whole community to enjoy, as well as a place of worship. With a focus on encouraging and nurturing new talent, the award exclusively recognises projects led by an early career project architect [in this case, project architect Alex Spicer].’
St. Mary’s Walthamstow, Matthew Lloyd Architects, Walthamstow, London
Neave Brown Award for Housing
The winner of the Neave Brown Award for Housing 2025 is Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects.
‘Given in honour of modernist architect and social housing pioneer, Neave Brown, the annual award recognises the UK’s best new affordable housing. Carefully designed to reduce loneliness and isolation, Appleby Blue Almshouse, which provides social housing for over 65’s, balances public, semi-public, and private spaces – including generous walkways, shared gardens, and a communal kitchen, to foster connection and support independence.
‘The scheme embodies Neave Brown’s belief in housing as a civic and social project, as it not only provides secure homes at social rent, but it also represents a thoughtful framework for living well in later life.’
Appleby Blue Almshouse, Witherford Watson Mann Architects, Southwark, London
Client of the Year
The winner of Client of the Year 2025 is United St Saviour’s Charity for Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects.
‘This award celebrates the crucial role of clients in championing outstanding architecture. Tackling social isolation among older generations living in Southwark was a key priority, so the charity worked closely with Witherford Watson Mann Architects to ensure the design focused on creating spaces to encourage chance meetings and enable easy interaction between residents.
‘Features including its double-height garden room and community kitchen, where residents come together for meals and various group activities, and smaller shared spaces, including a glazed porch and gallery on the first-floor level, give residents an opportunity to connect and observe the daily bustle of the high street location — are both integral to the success of the design.’
Appleby Blue Almshouse, Witherford Watson Mann Architects, Southwark, London
reinvention award
The winner of the 2025 RIBA Reinvention Award has been announced as Sheerness Dockyard Church by Hugh Broughton Architects.
‘The award recognises buildings that have been creatively reused to improve their environmental, social, or economic sustainability, to increase their longevity and energy efficiency, rather than demolishing and rebuilding them.
The disused building, which had been on Historic England’s ‘Heritage at Risk’ register due to fire damage, was sensitively restored by Hugh Broughton Architects using innovative material, and employing local skills and labour, to preserve its exterior and retain original features.
‘The former church’s new multi-faceted role as a community facility hosting a co-working space, café, public exhibition areas and an events venue has breathed new life into the community and Sheerness as a whole.’
Sheerness Dockyard Church, Hugh Broughton Architects, Sheerness, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England
Stirling Prize People’s Poll
With thousands of votes cast overall, the people chose the Elizabeth Tower restoration by Purcell Architecture as their winner of RIBA’s Stirling Prize People’s Poll 2025.
‘Housing the symbolic bell and timepiece of the nation (Big Ben), the most comprehensive restoration of Elizabeth Tower in 160 years is a masterpiece in conservation and craftsmanship.’
‘Like many conservation projects, appreciating the achievement requires some investigation. The shape of the tower, the clock faces and the sounds of the bells are mostly appreciated from a distance, as a dominant presence within one of the world’s most recognisable skylines. The jury’s inspection was carried out from within, after entering through a very modest door to one side of the main thoroughfare of MPs and parliamentary staff going about their business.
‘Work led by Purcell at the lower levels included extensive stone repairs, the refurbishment of various interior rooms for exhibitions and admin, and the clever insertion of a passenger lift which must be a welcome addition to the clock engineers and tour guides.’
Elizabeth Tower restoration, Purcell Architecture, London, England
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