A council-commissioned housing scheme in South London designed by Mary Duggan Architects with RUFF Architects and built by contractor CField has won the RIBA Stirling Prize 2026.
The Lion Green Road development in Coulsdon comprises five blocks with 157 dwellings combining privately-owned and socially-rented homes built for Croydon Council.
Replacing a former car park on a challenging, sloping site that varies in height by eight metres, the development creates a new connection between the bustling Lion Green Road and parkland beyond.
The arrangement uses the site’s changing levels and views to create a new “living landscape” for 635 residents.
The five blocks are built to the same specification but each is positioned to respond to the site’s topography to offer distinct views. Some face the monument of the Surrey Iron Railway, the world’s first fully independent public railway.
“The shared design creates a coherent family of buildings that belong within the landscape,” RIBA said.
Density and privacy at the same time
Unified by a palette of brickwork in three shades of brown, the blocks blend into the parkland beyond, while small variations in pattern add texture and give each building its own identity.
The blocks are arranged around shared outdoor spaces to encourage interaction and foster a sense of community. The layout achieves density and privacy at the same time. Balconies are positioned to avoid overlooking neighbouring homes.
CField is credited with cutting emissions with a streamlined building process.
“At a time when we urgently need to deliver more homes, Lion Green Road shows that density can be achieved without compromising the quality of the places we create,” said RIBA president Chris Williamson on behalf of the RIBA Stirling Prize Jury.
“Through a consistent specification, with subtle variation in height and orientation, it offers housing at scale without uniformity. The architects have created a new kind of garden neighbourhood that balances privacy and generous views with a strong connection to nature. It’s a living landscape.”
‘Future of housing’
Mary Duggan, director of Mary Duggan Architects, said: “We believe the significance of Lion Green Road lies in what it says about the future of housing: that architectural ambition, social value and generosity can co-exist within the realities of contemporary development.
“The project transforms a challenging suburban site into 157 homes woven through a mature, accessible landscape, using topography, shared space and carefully calibrated thresholds to support a rich culture of dwelling. Its transformative values are not expressed through spectacle, but through the everyday experience of living in a secure, generous environment, supporting privacy and encounter, independence and belonging, and the multiple patterns of contemporary domestic life.”
Creative industries minister Ian Murray said the scheme “shows what’s possible when great design meets public need”.
