Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects wins the 2025 RIBA Stirling Prize

The winner of the 2025 RIBA Stirling Prize, the UK’s most prestigious architecture award, is the Appleby Blue Almshouse, designed by Witherford Watson Mann Architects.

Established in 1996 by the Royal Institute of British Architects, the prize celebrates the building that has made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture in the UK each year—judged on innovation, sustainability, social impact, and the quality of experience it offers to its users.

Appleby Blue Almshouse: addressing a pressing social need

The winning project reinterprets the historic British almshouse—a charitable form of housing that dates back centuries—into a contemporary model of social and community living for older people. Appleby Blue responds to two of today’s most pressing issues: the shortage of affordable housing and the growing problem of loneliness in later life.

Located in Bermondsey, in the London Borough of Southwark, the scheme was developed in partnership with United St Saviour’s Charity, a local philanthropic organisation with a 500-year history. The new almshouse provides 59 apartments alongside shared spaces, occupying the site of a former care centre. In doing so, it not only revitalises a disused urban plot but also gives back to the community a vibrant, open place to live and connect.

Speaking on behalf of the jury, Ingrid Schroder, Director of the Architectural Association School of Architecture, remarked:

"This project is a clarion call for a new form of housing at a pivotal moment. Built 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."

Building community through architecture

Architecturally, Appleby Blue stands out for its sensitive integration into the urban fabric and its careful balance of discretion and openness. Its double-height glazed porch on the main street acts as a transparent threshold between the public realm and domestic life. The building is arranged around a large, sunlit south-facing courtyard, a green communal heart where residents can garden, meet, and chat in the open air.

The massing engages in a subtle dialogue with the surrounding Victorian fabric – echoing its brickwork, traditional bay windows and measured proportions – while asserting a contemporary and distinctive architectural language.

Inside, every design move is aimed at encouraging connection. Instead of private balconies, the apartments open onto wide, naturally lit corridors furnished with benches and planters, inviting residents to personalise and share the space. Common facilities include a communal kitchen and a double-height garden room, where large sliding doors open onto the courtyard garden. Here, cooking classes, shared meals, and neighbourhood events bring life to the building and foster exchange between residents and the wider community.

Transparency is the guiding idea throughout: those who live here can watch life unfolding on the street, remain part of the world, and at the same time open their home to it. This deliberate sense of openness, which stands against the physical and emotional isolation often experienced in later life, offers autonomy and wellbeing, nurturing a vital and precious sense of community.

>>> Discover the winners of the 2024 and 2023 RIBA Stirling Prize