AYA 2025 shortlists: Housing Architect of the Year

Earlier this year BD announced all the architects who made it on to the shortlists for our prestigious annual Architect of the Year Awards.

Now we are shining the spotlight on each category in turn and publishing a selection of the images that impressed the judges.

This year’s judges include: Yẹmí Aládérun, head of development, Meridian Water (Enfield Council); Amr Assaad, director, Buckley Gray Yeoman; Lee Bennet, partner, Sheppard Robson; Sarah Cary, chief development officer, White City at Imperial; Ben Derbyshire, chair, HTA Design LLP; Martyn Evans, creative director, U+I; Dicle Guntas, managing director, HGG London; Gavin Hale-Brown, director, Henley Halebrown; Tanvir Hasan, director emeritus, Donald Insall Associates; Lee Higson, board director, Eric Parry Architects; David Kohn, founder and director, David Kohn Architects; Oliver Lowrie, director and founder, Ackroyd Lowrie; Anna Mansfield, director, Publica; Jo McCafferty, director, Levitt Bernstein; Ian McKnight, director, Hall McKnight; John McRae, director, Orms; Andrew Mellor, partner, PRP; Sadie Morgan, director, dRMM; Setareh Neshati, director of regeneration and development – delivery and operations, Westminster City Council; David Partridge, co-founder, Senze; Manisha Patel, director, kpk Studios; Sarah Robinson, associate director, The King’s Foundation; Simon Saint, principal, Woods Bagot; Philippa Simpson, director for buildings and renewal, Barbican Centre; David Stansfield, senior partner, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios; Amin Taha, director, Groupwork; Magali Thomson, project lead for placemaking, Great Ormond Street Hospital; Ola Uduku, head of school, Liverpool School of Architecture; Tatiana von Preussen, co-founder, vPPR; Richard Wardle, director, Stanton Williams.

Today’s shortlist is for Housing Architect of the Year.

Hawkins\Brown

According to the practice, its projects ‘enrich lives, reconnect communities, and set new standards for sustainable urban living’. The entry features four London projects including Phase 1C of the Agar Grove estate redevelopment in Camden, billed as the largest UK Passivhaus project, and the 1034-home build-to-rent scheme of New Acres, which creates a new residential quarter on the river in Wandsworth. In East London, the ongoing Hallsville Quarter Phase 3 will deliver 620 new mixed-tenure homes in Canning Town.

Levitt Bernstein

Levitt Bernstein describes itself as ‘a true champion for better housing for all’.

Plashet Road in Newham delivers 68 family-focused, 100% affordable homes and a nursery. Melfield Gardens in Lewisham provides affordable intergenerational housing mixing older people and Goldsmith University post-graduate students. Both projects achieved Passivhaus certification. In Tower Hamlets, the practice has been working since 2010 on the new urban village of Aberfeldy in Poplar. The regeneration provides 1,176 homes and associated community facilities.

Morris+Company

Morris + Company’s three featured projects demonstrate its ability ‘to craft housing that is beautiful, buildable, and socially responsive’, according to the practice.

At Canada Water, Plot K1 delivered 79 tenure-blind homes in conjunction with active ground-floor uses. At Nine Elms Plot E, 297 rented homes are being created across four blocks with a shared plinth. The third project, again in London, is King’s Place in Southwark, a 444-unit student residence due for completion in 2028.

Satish Jassal Architects

The practice’s entry showcases ‘how modest infill sites can repair fragmented urban fabric and reinvigorate communities’.

All three featured projects are council-led housing schemes in Haringey, north London. Rowan Court is a masterplan for 46 council homes within a neglected estate edge, creating a new mews street and public square. Edith Road redevelops a car park site to mend a disjointed urban corner. The ongoing Barbara Hucklesbury Close proposes 14 net zero, supported-living homes.