Davidson Prize Longlist Announced To Address Homelessness

Key Highlights

• The third annual Davidson Prize longlist has been announced, featuring 16 UK-based studios’ concepts aiming to create new home communities to address housing insecurity.
• The projects cover various locations, including Liverpool, Newham, Belfast, and Newport, and were judged by a panel that included architects Sadie Morgan and Charles Holland.

The third annual Davidson Prize longlist has been announced, featuring concepts from 16 UK-based studios that aim to create “new kinds of home communities” to address the issue of housing insecurity. 

The Davidson Prize Longlist Announced for Innovative Home Communities Designs

This year’s Davidson Prize longlist was selected in response to the 2023 theme “Somewhere to Call Home” and includes designs based on workshops with refugees, proposals for secure housing for domestic abuse survivors, and projects aimed at preventing homelessness among care-leavers.

Architects from studios like Tonkin Liu, Coffey Architects, and Jas Bhalla Architects collaborated in creating the longlisted projects. They were judged by a panel that included architects Sadie Morgan and Charles Holland. 

The teams were asked to “imagine new kinds of home communities where people who have experienced the trauma of homelessness and housing insecurity are given the time and compassion to settle, recover and find their bearings.”

The designs cover various locations, including Liverpool, Newham in London, Belfast in Northern Ireland, and Newport in Wales. The prize was established by the Alan Davidson Foundation in memory of Scottish architectural visualizer Alan Davidson, who died of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in 2018.

Entries Were Praised For Their Quality

The longlisted entries were praised by Morgan for their quality, diversity of themes, depth of research, and innovative ideas, making it difficult for the judges to select the final 16 from the 47 entries received. The jury comprised Design Museum’s head of curatorial and interpretation Priya Khanchandani, Enfield Council senior development manager Yemí Aládérun, and Shelter’s director of policy, campaigns, and communications Osama Bhutta.

Longlist With Names of Projects and Organizations

The Davidson Prize’s three finalists will be shortlisted and each receives a cash prize of £5,000, with the winner receiving £10,000. The winner will be announced during the London Festival of Architecture in June 2023. In addition, a People’s Choice Award will be given to the project with the most public votes.

Below is a comprehensive list of the names of the projects and organizations involved in the Davidson Prize longlist:

1. ArchiSense: Neuronest London
2. Balaam Murphy, Platform Homes Self-Build, Social Action for Health, Single Parent Rights, Lucie Stroud, Circlus: The Mother’s House
3. Building Trust International: Carpenters Estate
4. Duty to Care: Homes on the High Street
5. Footprint Architects with Hope for Food Charity, Tammy Woodward and Rebecca Smith of WDA: The Talbot Sisters’ Legacy
6. Jas Bhalla Architects with All People All Places and Sheffield University: An Unhostile Environment
7. Patchwork with Coffee Tots: City Arcade
8. Re-Group: ZCD Architects with Madeleine Kessler Architecture and Datshiane Navanayagam, Architecture Doing Place, JCLA, Webb Yates Engineers, Charles Jegar: More Not Less
9. Rifugio: Switch
10. Soft Cities with Coffey Architects, Margaret Ravenscroft, Dion Barrett, Room for Refugees and Vanclaron CIC: Rights of Passage
11. Studio Idir with Me, Him & Her Design, Peter McKinney and Maura de Mello: Rhiz(h)ome
12. Studio Mutt and Neighbourhood with The Independence Initiative, Hugh Baird College, Islington Hostel Outreach, Amber Akaunu, Peter O’Neil, and Dead Good Poets Society: Helping Hands
13. Tonkin Liu, Studio Mama, Hildrey Studio, and Under One Sky Together with Exmouth Market community: Garden Family
14. Tropisms, EcoResponsive Environments, Yasmin Lennon-Chong, Marie-Louise Jones, Elena Tamosiunaite and Focus E15 Campaign: Re-Focus E15
15. Wild & Snab: Home Building
16. Will King, Hari Kumar Studio, Amnesty Feminists, Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance: Space for Roots to Grow