Communal spaces at Appleby Blue Almshouse link the complex’s senior residents with their neighbords.
Photographer: Gary BrittonA Housing Complex Designed to Tackle Loneliness Wins Britain’s Best Building
The Royal Institute of British Architects’ Stirling Prize goes to a London senior housing project that uses social space to tackle isolation among older adults.
Britain’s best new building is more than just a senior living center. The Appleby Blue Almshouse, which won this year’s prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize, brings one of the UK’s oldest forms of social housing to the modern era by incorporating designs that tackle loneliness and social isolation among older adults.
The project is a modern enlarged version of an almshouse, a kind of charity-run social housing for low-income seniors that dates back to medieval times. Traditionally almshouses are tucked away on side streets or built in the countryside, with the idea of offering residents a quiet retreat from society. But leaders behind Appleby Blue felt that can leave people feeling disconnected from their communities.