RIBA Stirling Prize 2019 goes to Goldsmith Street council housing scheme

The 100-home Goldsmith Street development in Norwich has become the first ever council housing scheme to win the RIBA Stirling Prize.

The Passivhaus and high-density Goldsmith Street social housing scheme designed by Mikhail Riches with Cathy Hawley has been awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize 2019.

London studio Mikhail Riches, led by David Mikhail and Annalie Riches, has won the biggest prize in UK architecture for the residential scheme in Norwich.

Goldsmith Street, which has provided Norwich City Council with 105 low-energy homes, was hailed by the jury as "a ground-breaking project and an outstanding contribution to British architecture".

RIBA president Alan Jones described the project as "a beacon of hope".

"Faced with a global climate emergency, the worst housing crisis for generations and crippling local authority cuts, Goldsmith Street is a beacon of hope," he said. "It is commended not just as a transformative social housing scheme and eco-development, but a pioneering exemplar for other local authorities to follow."

Located close to Norwich city centre, Goldsmith Street was designed by Mikhail Riches with Cathy Hawley as an affordable high-density alternative to apartment blocks. The development comprises seven terraced blocks arranged in four lines, containing a total of 45 houses and 60 flats, within an area of less than one hectare.

Each home faces south to maximise solar gain and is designed by Mikhail Riches to meet Passivhaus standard. Over a quarter of the site is dedicated to communal space to encourage social cohesion – including an open alley that runs through the centre of the scheme that doubles as a shared communal garden and safe play area for children.

The Stirling Prize 2019 judging panel, chaired by Julia Barfield, described the project as "a modest masterpiece".

"It is high-quality architecture in its purest most environmentally and socially-conscious form. Behind restrained creamy facades are impeccably detailed, highly sustainable homes – an incredible achievement for a development of this scale. This is proper social housing, over ten years in the making, delivered by an ambitious and thoughtful council. These desirable, spacious, low-energy properties should be the norm for all council housing," the jury added.

RIBA's Stirling Prize has been awarded annually since 1996 to buildings deemed to have made the most significant impact to British architecture in the past year. This year marks the first time that the prize has gone to social housing.