A lively art class is under way in the high-ceilinged painting studio of the John Morden Centre, visible through big picture windows from the adjacent cafe, where the facility’s residents catch up over a cuppa. Others are getting their hair and nails done in the salon next door, while some sit and admire the view of a grand old cedar tree in the cloistered garden. In the nearby knitting circle, excitement is brewing for the evening’s karaoke night.
This day centre for residents of Morden College, a retirement community in south-east London, has been named winner of the 2023 RIBA Stirling prize for the best new building in the country, and it’s not hard to see why. In its arrangement of spaces, carefully judged details and tactile material qualities, it is a model for how to create a sociable setting for life in older age – a beacon of optimism after a decade of swingeing cuts to social care.
