Shared accommodation for care leavers; straw bale self-build proposal to tackle rural homelessness; and a new set of design codes for temporary housing were among the finalists for a major architecture prize awarded last night in London.
The overall winner of this year’s Davidson Prize was Helping Hands, which aims to address the urgent need for temporary homeless accommodation and support services in Bootle, Liverpool, with a particular focus on the needs of young people leaving the care system.
Using leftover space from a typical urban block in Liverpool, Helping Hands has created shared accommodation for care leavers as well as individual homes for greater degrees of independence.
It has also opened and connected the backs of three organisations which are already based in the space, and which offer support to homeless and vulnerable people.
In doing so, the project proposes a nurturing communal landscape for people facing homelessness, which has been co-created by residents, neighbours and specialist support organisations.
Helping Hands is led by architects Studio Mutt and development company Neighbourhood. It was designed in collaboration with The Independence Initiative, a homeless services provider; Hugh Baird College, an education and training institution; Islington Hostel Outreach; filmmaker Amber Akaunu and poetry society and event organisers Dead Good Poets Society.
Established in memory of architect and visualisation pioneer Alan Davidson, the Davidson Prize is an annual design ideas competition which seeks to promote the wellbeing of people through excellent design and communication.
This year’s theme was ‘Somewhere to Call Home’, with teams asked to imagine better solutions for temporary homelessness accommodation at a location in the UK or Ireland.
The competition received applications from 47 teams, whittled down to a longlist of 16 projects. Three finalists were selected by the jury at a preliminary judging stage, with each awarded £5,000 to develop their initial proposals and create a two-minute film. These were presented to the jury panel in London last week.
Helping Hands was announced as the 2023 Davidson Prize winner on Tuesday, June 20 and will be awarded £10,000. The ceremony was held at Istituto Marangoni in Shoreditch as part of the London Festival of Architecture.
“Choosing an outright winner was tough; what tipped it for Helping Hands was the sense of people working together on the ground, building on existing community infrastructure, and taking collective responsibility for a better future,” said Sadie Morgan, chair of the prize.
“The level and quality of engagement with service users and providers was extremely impressive, and the judges applaud the idea of a project deeply rooted in place. The solution applies design intelligence to tap into and join up local support networks – with tangible and visible results.”
The two runners-up for this year’s prize were More Not Less, run by Re-group, and Home Building, run by Wild & SNaB.
More Not Less is a proposal for national design codes to improve the quality of life in temporary housing, focusing on a site on Kingsland Road in Hackney which currently has planning approval for a temporary accommodation scheme that Re-Group believe is not fit for purpose.
Home Building, is a straw-bale, self-build solution which aims to address homelessness in rural areas. It aims to provide a 12-month design and construction course for care leavers, people leaving the armed forces, ex-prisoners and asylum seekers, with beneficiaries creating 12 homes for a community of 50.
A People’s Choice Prize, decided by public vote, was also announced at Tuesday’s event, with Rifugio announced as the winners. Their project, Switch, proposed transforming a disused station in Highgate into a sanctuary for asylum seekers to aid their onward journey.
“Once again the Alan Davidson Foundation has been amazed and delighted by the energy, ideas and design solutions generated through our annual competition,” said Marie Chamillard, Davidson Prize director.
“What united all the submissions was an overwhelming sense of care, with the entries demonstrating that there could —and should— be far better solutions to the growing crisis of temporary homelessness in our cities, towns and countryside.”
The longlisted, finalist and winning entries are on The Davidson Prize website. The theme for 2024’s award will be announced later this year.
