Lion Green Road housing in Croydon wins the RIBA Stirling Prize 2026

The RIBA Stirling Prize turned 30 this year, and the jury gave it to Lion Green Road, a housing scheme designed by Mary Duggan Architects, with RUFF Architects delivering, in Coulsdon, Croydon, on London's southern edge. It holds 157 homes, private and affordable, in five 13-sided brick blocks on a green hillside. The site was awkward: an 8m change in level, access to keep open for neighbours behind, and a scheduled monument linked to the old Surrey Iron Railway next door.

What won the jury over is how gently it sits. Brick laid in patterns gives the pavilions a tactile skin, balconies are angled so nobody looks straight into anyone else's, and a richly planted landscape runs between the blocks, with play areas, seating, growing spaces and public paths. The jury praised its "meaningful public benefit".

The shortlist reads like a decent itinerary: Bennetts Associates' Beam, the 1970s Hertford Theatre wrapped in new brick on the River Lea; Renzo Piano's glass cube at Paddington Square1, with a new Bakerloo line entrance; and two Cambridge college projects, at Pembroke and Clare. The same evening, the International Prize went to Nakshabid Architects' Green Field Factory in Rangpur, Bangladesh.

This is award news rather than an opening, and Lion Green Road is people's homes, but its public paths make it worth a look if you're in south London.

Our summary of a story from Wallpaper*, published 15 October 2026. Read the original