New blog explores how award-winning Appleby Blue redefines community-centred housing for older people

In this new Housing LIN blog, Stephen Witherford, co-founder of Witherford Watson Mann architects, explores how Britain’s housing crisis is not just about numbers, but about rebuilding community.

He reflects on Appleby Blue, the Stirling Prize–winning reimagining of the almshouse created with United St Saviour’s Charity, which offers older residents connection rather than retreat.

Set on a lively Bermondsey high street, the project blends independent living with shared spaces, from a two-storey Garden Room to a community cookery school, facilitating intergenerational exchange and mutual care. Witherford shows how holistic, civic-minded design can unlock homes, reduce loneliness, and support joyful, dignified later life.