Lion Green Road

This year's Stirling Prize for architecture has just been awarded to a project in London, way down south in Coulsdon off Lion Green Road. Previously the site was a large car park, but housing needs are tight so they've shrunk that to a really small car park and replaced the rest with mixed housing. It's understatedly impressive. [RIBA video] This is a well connected site, close to the shops and the station, but also a challenging site being on a noticeable slope. The original plan was to include 80-odd flats but they actually managed 157, which is one contributary reason why the project got shortlisted. Also it's a mixed development that's mostly affordable housing, which is another, also it's not surrounded by a miserable fence it all merges seamlessly into the surrounding area. This high density mash-up was designed by Mary Duggan Architects who must be very pleased this week. They created five squat towers, all brick-faced and multi-faceted, like a jagged update of a set of…