The RIBA Stirling Prize 2026 winner announcement at this time (15 October) marks not only a much-anticipated annual second within the international structure world, but in addition the thirtieth anniversary of the revered accolade – which this yr goes to the housing scheme Lion Inexperienced Highway in Croydon, south London, the brainchild of architect Mary Duggan.
The shortlist of six tasks supplied grounds for some fierce competitors and debate – schemes spanned typologies and scales, and included a luxuriously restrained household dwelling, a large-scale constructing over a key London transport hub, and an eco-friendly neighborhood house.
The RIBA Stirling Prize 2026 winner: Lion Inexperienced Highway by Mary Duggan Architects (design) with RUFF Architects (supply)
(Picture credit score: Lorenzo Zandri)
Lion Inexperienced Highway contains 157 dwellings – each personal and reasonably priced. They’re organized into 5 prismatic 13-sided blocks set on the inexperienced hillside in Coulsdon, Croydon, on the southern fringe of London.
The jury quotation explains the challenge’s specific challenges: ‘The location fronts onto Lion Inexperienced Highway, with low-rise inexperienced‑belt housing set on increased floor to the south and conventional suburban streets to the north. Its dramatic 8m stage modifications and place inside a geological basin demanded an ingenious design response from the architects. Extra constraints included the necessity to preserve entry to the housing and open land to the rear, and the requirement to guard a neighbouring scheduled monument related to the historic Surrey Iron Railway.’
(Picture credit score: Lorenzo Zandri)
A part of the challenge’s enchantment is its rigorously calculated but light method – each by way of its sculptural volumes and the best way they relate to their environment. The textured materials and its immaculate composition – brick, positioned to type numerous patterns – additionally help this delicate response to the transient and context.
Uncover the RIBA Stirling Prize 2026 winner
The challenge places the pristine, inexperienced panorama round it first, weaving the structure between bushes and different planting, utilizing its tactile, detailed brick material to craft volumes in refined dialogue with their environment, as a substitute of dominating them.
The jury quotation highlights this method too: ‘Balconies are oriented to keep away from direct overlooking, permitting the pavilions to be positioned nearer collectively whereas nonetheless sustaining lengthy views from the personal areas. A richly planted, biodiverse panorama weaves the positioning collectively and performs a central function within the challenge’s identification. The panorama technique accommodates important stage modifications whereas creating a wide range of shared areas, from kids’s play areas to seating zones and devoted rising areas. Public pathways thread by way of the planting, inviting neighborhood use and enhancing permeability.’
It was this mixture of ingenious but comparatively quiet design, a site-specific perspective, and a landscape-first method that allowed the pavilion association to be woven into the pure context that made the challenge stand out to the jury – which was composed this yr of Chris Williamson (RIBA president), 6a architects director Stephanie Macdonald, RSHP senior director Tracy Meller, head of internet zero coverage at CIBSE Dr Julie Godefroy, Sir John Soane’s Museum director Will Gompertz, and VP Product & Expertise at Autodesk Catherine Winfield.
‘[It] delivers significant public profit whereas providing excessive‑high quality amenity for residents and supporting a powerful sense of neighborhood,’ they wrote.
The RIBA Stirling Prize 2026 shortlist
RIBA President Chris Williamson mentioned, when the shortlist was revealed in the course of the summer time: ‘This yr’s shortlist reveals us what structure can obtain when creativity, function and public worth come collectively. Of their distinct ambitions to revitalise communities, remodel public infrastructure, ship exemplary housing, rigorously evolve historic establishments and create a considerate new dwelling, these tasks present that UK structure will not be solely outlined by type, however by true impression on individuals and place.’
‘Because the Stirling Prize marks its thirtieth yr, this distinctive shortlist joins a distinguished legacy of tasks that signify the easiest of British structure – the place ambition, ingenuity and social accountability mix to create locations of lasting worth.’
Listed below are the opposite buildings that fashioned the shortlist.
A home at Fairmead, Excessive Seashore, Epping Forest by Sergison Bates
(Picture credit score: Johan Dehlin)
Situated on the fringe of Epping Forest within the outskirts of London, this dwelling responds to its rural, leafy setting with a cloth and formal restraint, permitting the character round it to take centre stage. It isn’t nearly seems both, as sustainable structure strategies concerned within the development embody the usage of insulating clay blocks completed with lime plaster, which guarantee higher warmth administration inside.
(Picture credit score: Johan Dehlin)
A dramatic 4.5m-high lounge not solely turns into the guts of the house, however can also be a second of joyful openness, in a play of compression and growth, personal and public, inside the dwelling’s design.
(Picture credit score: Johan Dehlin)
Beam, Hertfordshire, by Bennetts Associates
(Picture credit score: Hufton + Crow)
This putting multi-arts venue set on the banks of the River Lea is a forward-thinking transformation of the prevailing, ageing Nineteen Seventies Hertford Theatre right into a Twenty first-century venue. The constructing has been up to date by wrapping the unique constructing in a brand new brick type.
(Picture credit score: Hufton + Crow)
This homes a cinema and occasions house. The council-led scheme highlights reuse and retrofitting, whereas making a extremely useful civic and neighborhood hub that responds to at this time’s wants.
(Picture credit score: Hufton + Crow)
Paddington Sq. by Renzo Piano Constructing Workshop (Paris) in collaboration with Adamson Associates (London)
(Picture credit score: Hufton + Crow)
Paddington Sq. includes a clear, cube-shaped, mixed-use constructing, containing workplace, meals and beverage choices, retail and a public sq., in addition to a brand new Bakerloo Line entrance and ticket corridor. The challenge consists of an skilled stage of architectural mastery with the intention to craft not ‘simply the seems, but in addition the permeability and accessibility of the general public realm on the positioning’, mentioned architect Joost Moolhuijzen of RPBW on the time of its completion.
(Picture credit score: Hufton + Crow)
The architects moved an current avenue to disclose direct entry to the station, successfully making a extra seen, new gateway in direction of the platforms for the general public. A tough-working public plaza at its foot presents entrances to the practice hub, the underground, the retail and the places of work above, in addition to open inexperienced house.
(Picture credit score: Hufton + Crow)
Pembroke, Mill Lane by Haworth Tompkins
(Picture credit score: Fred Howarth)
The challenge encompasses a major growth inside Cambridge’s Historic Core Conservation Space – a reimagining of Pembroke Faculty that artfully blends outdated and new. Six refreshed current buildings meet six new constructions in a broader website that balances historical past and fashionable use, public openness and performance.
(Picture credit score: Fred Howarth)
The challenge has additionally employed key sustainable structure methods, together with necessary passive design measures. Options span triple glazing, uncovered thermal mass and photovoltaic panels.
(Picture credit score: Fred Howarth)
River Wing, Clare Faculty by Witherford Watson Mann Architects
(Picture credit score: Philip Vile)
A difficult website, the the Grade I-listed Clare Faculty in Cambridge, was introduced into the Twenty first century as a collection of underused, unfit-for-purpose areas have been redesigned for contemporary requirements. The challenge’s current, historic brick partitions are complemented by a palette of oak, for the construction and wall panelling, and Purbeck stone flooring.
(Picture credit score: Philip Vile)
The result’s each delicate to its current situation and immaculately detailed. The school’s new wing brings collectively previous and current in a seemingly easy however in actuality extremely calibrated and intensely deliberate up to date growth.
(Picture credit score: Philip Vile)
RIBA Worldwide Prize 2026
Extra awards have been revealed on the identical night, past the Stirling. The RIBA Worldwide Prize 2026 shortlist included simply 4 buildings – and from these, the Inexperienced Discipline Manufacturing unit in Bangladesh was introduced the yr’s finest. The various tasks, spanning from Europe to Asia, every provide an thrilling architectural proposition. Their frequent floor? ‘Design [that] improves day by day life whereas responding to a altering local weather,’ RIBA’s representatives clarify.
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Nakshabid Architects)
Winner: Inexperienced Discipline Manufacturing unit of Karupannya Rangpur Restricted by Nakshabid Architects, Rangpur, Bangladesh
What if a textile manufacturing facility have been handled not as industrial floor, however firstly as office, wellbeing hub and house for neighborhood? The consequence may look one thing just like the Inexperienced Discipline Manufacturing unit, a deceptively giant, seven-storey constructing that takes its cues from its nation’s vernacular and rural Bengali homesteads.
RIBA Worldwide Rising Architect Award 2026
This RIBA award celebrates younger expertise and rising observe the world over – this yr, highlighting Maker Architecten for a residential challenge in Belgium that ‘revitalises a Nineteen Twenties garden-city neighbourhood with out wholesale demolition’.
(Picture credit score: Stijn Bollaert)
Winner: Maker Architecten
The studio was based in 2019 in Ghent, led by architects Ana Castillo and Lieven De Groote. The design that made them stand out on this case is titled ‘YIMBY’ (Sure in my BackYard) and is about within the nation’s metropolis of Kortrijk. Benefiting from components of reuse and good adaptability, the architects breathed new life into an current website.
They mentioned: ‘We’re honoured that Maker has been recognised with the RIBA Worldwide Rising Architect 2026 award. The challenge YIMBY explores how small-scale interventions can contribute to a bigger transformation of the town. At a time when reasonably priced housing, useful resource shortage and social fragmentation are urgent challenges throughout Europe, we consider the prevailing metropolis is certainly one of our most respected sources. Its buildings, supplies and social networks all maintain potential for the long run. YIMBY is an try and work with that potential, creating new worth with out erasing the tales embedded within the place.’
