Neave Brown affordable housing award 2024 shortlist named

The institute says each of this year’s shortlisted projects ‘seeks to help address pressing issues facing local residents while providing a hopeful blueprint for future social housing’.

Chair of this year’s jury and 2023 Neave Brown winner Astrid Smitham said the shortlist ‘shows the importance of great partnerships between clients and architects in delivering housing of the very highest standard’ at a time when the UK has set out to build 1.5 million new homes.

Shortlisted for the prize are: Al-Jawad Pike for its ‘sculptural’ infill council housing development in Hackney – also a contender for this year’s Stirling Prize; Pollard Thomas Edwards for its transformation of a 60s estate into 70 low-carbon homes; Page\Park Architects for a 31 flat scheme on an empty brownfield plot in Glasgow; and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Alison Brooks Architects, Gort Scott, and RM_A Architect for a ‘neighbourhood transformation’ with 235 social homes in north London.

The Neave Brown Award for Housing is named after Modernist architect and social-housing pioneer Neave Brown (1929-2018). This year’s judging panel included Brown’s daughter, Zoe.

Source:Rory Gardiner

Neave Brown Awards for Housing 2024 finalist: Chowdry Walk, London by Al-Jawad Pike

The four projects shortlisted for the 2024 Neave Brown Award for Housing:

• Chowdhury Walk by Al-Jawad Pike. A ‘sculptural’ infill development of 11 houses in Hackney, London. The RIBA says the project ‘heralds an ambitious programme of new generation council homes by Hackney Council’, with a ‘strong, confident presence’ delivered by its sculptural form.
• Dover Court Estate by Pollard Thomas Edwards. A ‘carefully implemented reimagining’ of a 1960s Modernist estate near Balls Pond Road in Islington, London, with 70 homes delivered across eight sites without relocating any residents. The RIBA says this project ‘is a blueprint for renewing existing social housing estates and helping to maintain and support communities’.
• North Gate Social Housing by Page\Park Architects. A longstanding vacant brownfield site in Glasgow turned into a ‘new residential city landmark’ with 31 flats for primarily older residents. The RIBA says this project ‘placed the needs of the community at the heart of the design’.
• Unity Place by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Alison Brooks Architects and Gort Scott (design Architects); RM_A Architect (delivery architects). Described by RIBA as a ‘key element’ in the 15-year South Kilburn Regeneration Programme in London, this project delivered 235 homes which ‘reinstates historical street patterns, harmonising high-density housing with the surrounding low- to medium-rise buildings through contextually sympathetic materials’.

Last year, Apparata Architects won the award for its ‘ingenious’ House for Artists, featuring a flexible live-work space in Barking, east London for 12 artists across five floors, offering residents reduced rent in exchange for the delivery of creative community programmes from its street-facing exhibition space.

RIBA president Muyiwa Oki said this year’s shortlist ‘reaffirms that creating social housing should not be seen as a limitation to architects, but a great opportunity’.

He added: ‘Each brief has taken run-down or underused spaces and created outstanding projects that serve the needs of residents and the wider community.

‘These schemes thoughtfully balance the environment, community, and quality, reinforcing the reality that when designing social housing, good design need not compromise on any of the three.’

The winner will be announced at the RIBA Stirling Prize ceremony on Wednesday 16 October 2024 at the Roundhouse in London.

Source:Tom Bright

Neave Brown Awards for Housing 2024 finalist: Dover Court Estate by Pollard Thomas Edwards

Source:Nick Kane

Neave Brown Awards for Housing 2024 finalist: North Gate Social Housing, Glasgow, by Page\Park Architects