The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has today (Thursday 25 July) announced the shortlist for the very first Neave Brown Award for Housing, named in honour of the late Neave Brown (1929 – 2018).
Neave Brown was a socially-motivated, modernist architect, best known for designing a series of celebrated London housing estates. In 2018, he was awarded the UK’s highest honour for architecture, the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, which is approved personally by Her Majesty The Queen.
The four housing developments in the running for the 2019 Neave Brown Award for Housing are:
- Brentford Lock West Keelson Gardens, London, by Mae Architects
Thoughtful canalside development comprising six large apartment buildings, with distinctive saw-tooth roofs reflecting the site's industrial past, linked with rows of four storey townhouses.
- Eddington Lot 1, Cambridge, by WilkinsonEyre with Mole Architects
Designed for the University of Cambridge, this new residential quarter is an exemplar of integrated urban design. Incorporating a variety of housing types including generous apartments, some wrapped around a new supermarket and integrated with a new doctor’s surgery.
- Goldsmith Street, Norwich, by Mikhail Riches with Cathy Hawley
Large development of 105 highly energy-efficient homes for social rent, designed to Passivhaus standards for Norwich City Council.
- The Colville Estate, London, by Karakusevic Carson Architects with David Chipperfield Architects
Bold regeneration of a Hackney Council housing estate, designed and delivered in close engagement with residents, to provide 925 new homes in a neighbourhood of legible streets and open spaces.
Commenting on the shortlist, RIBA President Ben Derbyshire, said:
“We urgently need to build new homes in the UK, but must ensure that they are sustainable and of the highest quality to meet the needs of current and future generations. This shortlist presents four exemplars – innovative, creative and highly desirable new communities in a diverse range of locations and situations. Each one addresses the challenge of housing affordability with impressive thought and innovative design – and are collectively a fitting homage to the legacy of the late, great Neave Brown.”
The shortlist was selected from the 2019 RIBA Regional Awards winners by an expert panel of judges: RIBA President Ben Derbyshire; Director at Levitt Bernstein Jo McCafferty; and Adrian Gale, formally of the School of Architecture at the University of Plymouth.
To be considered for the 2019 Neave Brown Award for Housing, projects needed to be a winner of a 2019 RIBA Regional Award, be a project of ten or more homes completed and occupied between 1 November 2016 and 1 February 2019 and one third of the housing needed to be affordable and should demonstrate evidence of meeting the challenge of housing affordability.
The winner of the Neave Brown Award for Housing will be announced at the RIBA Stirling Prize ceremony on Tuesday 8 October 2019.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
1. For further press information contact Abigail.Chiswell-White@riba.org, 020 7307 3811
2. Images and citations can be downloaded here.
3. Neave Brown (1929 – 2018) was a modernist housing architect, best known for a series of housing estates in and around Camden in North London. Recognition for Neave Brown came late in life. His work in the 1960s and 70s was rejected for eschewing the high-rise norms of the time and instead – most notably in the case of Alexandra Road (1978) – focusing on a street-based alternative that placed an emphasis on communal spaces and shared facilities, whilst working within the constraints of local authority budgets and planning requirements and a dense and constrained urban context. His plans made clever use of space, creating capacious and generous rooms for occupants.
4. The RIBA Awards have been running continuously since 1966 and are judged and presented locally. No matter the shape, size, budget or location, RIBA Award winning schemes set the standard for great architecture all across the country. RIBA Awards are for buildings in the UK by RIBA Chartered Architects and RIBA International Fellows. Entries are to be submitted to the region or nation in which the building is situated. Projects are judged first for RIBA Regional Awards, then RIBA National Awards; the RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist is selected from winners of the RIBA National Awards.
5. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a global professional membership body that serves its members and society in order to deliver better buildings and places, stronger communities and a sustainable environment. Follow @RIBA on Twitter for regular updates
