The project offers an alternative to the traditional streets-and-squares approach to large-scale housing, showing how higher-density development can respond sensitively to its setting while creating places for people and nature. The development’s design incorporates shared gardens, allotments, a village green, playgrounds and publicly accessible landscaped areas that extend the surrounding green environment.
Duncan Baker-Brown, Principal Lecturer and M.Arch Architecture Course Leader at the Â鶹AV, said: “What an inspiration Mary Duggan is. Winning the biggest prize in UK architecture, the RIBA Stirling Prize, is proof that ambitious, beautifully designed architecture can deliver the excellent affordable homes we so urgently need.
“As a woman leading by example in our profession, her RIBA win is particularly inspiring, and for those of us at the Â鶹AV there is an extra reason to celebrate: Mary is one of our Architecture alumni and, until recently, one of our RIBA External Examiners. We couldn’t be prouder.”
Mary’s achievement also highlights the role of architectural education in preparing graduates to respond creatively to the challenges facing the built environment.
For students and emerging architects, Lion Green Road offers an example of how thoughtful design, collaboration and a strong social purpose can come together to create places with lasting value. Its approach raises wider questions about how housing can contribute to neighbourhoods, support biodiversity and create opportunities for people to connect with their surroundings.
The RIBA Stirling Prize recognises buildings that make a significant contribution to the evolution of the built environment. Lion Green Road was selected from a shortlist of six projects, reflecting the scheme’s distinctive architectural design and its response to the social, environmental and economic challenges of delivering new housing.
Mary’s win is a significant achievement for the architectural profession and a source of pride for the Â鶹AV, reinforcing the value of an approach to design that combines creativity with a commitment to people, communities and place.