2025 RIBA Client of the Year Shortlist, British architecture prize, UK architects design news

2025 RIBA Client of the Year Winner News

Architecture award winners United Kingdom. Key new English buildings & structures.

17 October 2025

United St Saviours Charity wins RIBA Client of the Year award

photo : Philip Vile

A south London charity providing pioneering housing for older people has been announced by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) as the winner of the Client of the Year Award 2025. United St Saviours Charity (UStSC) received the accolade for Appleby Blue Almshouse at the Stirling Prize ceremony at London’s Roundhouse.

The 500-year-old charity aimed to reimagine the traditional almshouse by offering high quality social collective housing to older people. The resulting Appleby Blue Almshouse, which provides 59 apartments, a courtyard garden, galleries and shared spaces to residents over 65, was delivered thanks to a unique partnership between Southwark Council, the developer JTRE London and UStSC.

Tackling social isolation among older generations living in Southwark was a key priority for UStSC, so the charity worked closely with Witherford Watson Mann Architects to ensure the design focused on creating spaces to encourage chance meetings and enable easy interaction between residents. Features including its double-height garden room and community kitchen, where residents come together for meals and various group activities, and smaller shared spaces, including a glazed porch and gallery on the first-floor level, give residents an opportunity to connect and observe the daily bustle of the high street location – are both integral to the success of the design.

Apartments are also linked by wide, naturally lit internal corridors and there are benches and shared planters outside front doors, to encourage residents to socialise, as opposed to individual balconies off each living space, which some said made them feel more isolated.

Martyn Craddock, Chief Executive, United St Saviour’s Charity said:
“We are honoured to receive the RIBA Client of the Year Award for Appleby Blue Almshouse. This project embodies our ambition to support inclusive communities in Southwark through thoughtful, innovative design, and our belief that good design should be available to all. Working closely with Witherford Watson Mann, we’ve shown that historic organisations can be bold and forward-thinking, and that social housing can and should be well-designed and A aspirational.

The building’s design enables joyful living in the heart of the city, supports our team to deliver high-quality services, and fosters belonging across generations through the shared community centre and kitchen. This award is down to the strength and belief in of our shared vision, our very close working relationship with the architects, as well as our joint long-term commitment to the design principles that shaped every decision. We hope Appleby Blue inspires others to reimagine what growing older in our cities can look like — and to create more places like it across the country.”

Stephen Witherford, Founding Director, Witherford Watson Mann said:
“United St. Saviour’s were courageous and engaged from first to last. They selected an architect on shared vision, not specialist experience and together, we refined their bold vision for a mutually supportive community.

They have put as much love and commitment into nurturing a community as they did into making a building. With the same brief and architect but most other clients, this would only be half the building that it is.”

This year’s Client of the Year jury comprised: Simon Henley, Founding Director, Henley Halebrown (Chair), Sophy Twohig, Director, Hopkins Architects, RIBA Awards Group Member, Kathy Dacre, Founding Member of Shakespeare North Trust, Recipient of RIBA Client of the Year Award 2024, Kate Guy, Social Housing Development Director, Ibstock, RIBA Client of the Year Award Sponsor.  

The Client of the Year Prize is sponsored by Ibstock.

1 August 2025

RIBA Client of the Year 2025 shortlist revealed

photo : Fotohaus

RIBA announces shortlist for the Client of the Year Award 2025

Friday 1 August 2025 – The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the shortlist for the RIBA Client of the Year 2025, sponsored by Ibstock. Now in its 27th year, the annual award celebrates the crucial role of clients in championing outstanding architecture.

This year’s shortlist recognises six exceptional clients for their role in delivering transformative and considered projects which benefit the communities around them. This includes the preservation of a historic landmark (Strategic Estates/UK Parliament for Elizabeth Tower), a sustainable cohousing development (Bridport Housing CLT for Hazelmead, Bridport Cohousing), a reimagined almshouse (United St Saviour’s Charity for Appleby Blue Almshouse), and a rehabilitation centre for women (One Small Thing for Hope Street). A seaside community hub (Tendring District Council for Sunspot) and a reinvented women’s prison (Scottish Prison Service for HMP & YOI Stirling) also make the shortlist.

Simon Henley, Jury Chair, Founding Director of Henley Halebrown, said:
“This year all our finalists are community groups and public bodies, all with an ambitious brief that has changed the lives of those who encounter their buildings. While the shortlisted clients have a range and variety of experience, they all showed real courage and resilience in pursuing their goals for these projects whilst facing multiple challenges and complexities over many years.

These buildings are therefore often born out of enduring, close working relationships between the client and the architect. Each has benefited from a collaborative design process and a high degree of trust which has resulted in these clients’ facilitating great architecture.”

2025 RIBA Client of the Year Shortlist of 6

The six shortlisted clients are:

• Bridport Housing CLT for Hazelmead, Bridport Cohousing by Barefoot Architects

The largest completed cohousing development in the UK. The scheme comprises 53 climate-resilient homes, a common house, and shared green spaces, with the client demonstrating a strong commitment to affordable, sustainable, and community-focused living.

• One Small Thing for Hope Street by Snug Architects

Designed to reimagine rehabilitation for women and their children and offer a compassionate alternative to custodial sentences, the client envisioned for Hope Street to be a home rather than an institution. The design brief focuses on dignity and trust, featuring communal lounges, activity rooms, a coffee shop, and counselling spaces, all within a warm, domestic architectural language.

• Scottish Prison Service for HMP & YOI Stirling by Holmes Miller

A new 100-person facility for Women in Custody in Scotland, with the client centring the design ethos on creating a gender specific, trauma informed, and therapeutic environment throughout. Open spaces such as large courtyards and garden spaces were also incorporated to encourage movement, interaction and reflection – key components in the rehabilitative ethos that underpinned the project.

• Strategic Estates/UK Parliament for Elizabeth Tower by Purcell

The restoration of the Elizabeth Tower – home to Big Ben – was the most extensive in the tower’s 160-year history. In turn, the success of the project was testament to the client’s ambition and commitment to maintaining its historical landmark status. The client was pivotal in ensuring sensitive and comprehensive repairs were undertaken while safeguarding its future as a cultural monument and heritage site.

• Tendring District Council for Sunspot by HAT Projects

Rooted in the client’s strong vision to reignite the area’s economy and identity of the community, 24 low-cost business units sit alongside a covered market, community garden, bus shelter, café, public WCs, and outdoor events space. Sunspot has become a joyful landmark, a new hub for the community, and a catalyst for wider regeneration.

• United St Saviour’s Charity for Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects

United St Saviour’s Charity (UStSC), a Southwark-based charity of almost 500 years, set out the ambition to re-interpret the traditional almshouse, offering high-quality social collective housing for older people. With increased levels of social isolation among older generations, the design focused on creating spaces to encourage chance meetings and interact easily with other residents.

The Client of the Year Award shortlist is selected from winners of the RIBA Regional and National Awards 2025. The winner will be announced at the Stirling Prize ceremony on 16 October 2025.

+++

Sunspot, Jaywick Sands, Essex, Southeast England
Design: HAT Projects

photo : Jim Stephenson

Elizabeth Tower Palace of Westminster Renovation
Design: architect A.W.N. Pugin
Renewal Design: Purcell

photo courtesy of the Purcell architects office

HM Prison and Young Offender Institution Stirling Scotland

photo : Chris Humphreys Photography

Appleby Blue Almshouse, Southwark, designed by Witherford Watson Mann Architects:

photo : Philip Vile

One Small Thing, Hope Street, Southampton, Hampshire, Southern England,
Design: Snug Architects

photo : Fotohaus

Hazelmead, Bridport Cohousing, Dorchester, Dorset, south of England:

photo © Rebecca Noakes

2025 RIBA Client of the Year Shortlist images / information received August 2025

Previous winners of RIBA Client of the Year include Shakespeare North Trust and Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council (2024), Onion Collective (2023), Thornsett Group Plc (2022), Cambridge Mosque Trust (2021), Network Rail (2019), Argent LLP (2018), Bedales School (2017), Westmorland Ltd (2016), National Theatre (2015), Manchester Metropolitan University (2014) and the National Trust (2013).

Location: UK

+++

Previously on e-architect: