In the latest instalment of the national demoralisation campaign, the Royal Institute of British Architects' (RIBA) 2026 Stirling Prize has been awarded to what, on first glance, resembles an airport multistorey car park. In fact, the 13-sided buildings in Lion Green Road, Coulsdon are affordable and private housing commissioned by Croydon Council and designed by Mary Duggan Architects. What is most bleak about this award-winning design and the other modernist-pastiche finalists is the blank-eyed dismal quality of the windows
The BBC reports:
Duggan, who was brought up in south-west London, said the scheme “challenged conventional suburban housing layouts centred on roads, private gardens and clearly defined front and back spaces”.
Winding paths and planting weave between the blocks, connecting them and linking shared outdoor spaces.
She said she wanted it to be a public space people felt they could belong to.
“Housing needs to be progressive. People who live in the building have access to green space, allotments.”
I’m personally not sure "housing needs to be progressive" but what do I know? I’m not a RIBA-award winning architect. I did however study the history of 17th and 18th century British architecture with Dr Robert Beddard and know a beautiful building when I see it. Being drenched at an impressionable age in Vitruvius Brittanicus allows me confidently to assert that the Stirling Prize winning building and all the other finalists are not very nice....<<<Read More>>>...
