The Alan Davidson Foundation has officially unveiled the three finalists for the 2025 Davidson Prize, a prestigious £25,000 design ideas competition celebrating transformative architecture of the home. This year’s theme, “Streets Ahead: The race to build 1.5 million homes,” challenged multidisciplinary teams to propose visionary solutions for at least 300 homes in urban, suburban, or rural settings.
The finalists
1. Ash Sakula with Human Nature – 1 House, 2 Homes… make a neighbourhood, which explores doubling density without expanding footprint in Seaham, County Durham.
2. Clifton Emery Design, Nudge Community Builders, Millfields Trust, Plymouth Energy Community & Devon & Cornwall Planning Consultants – 300 Homes within a Union Street Mile, a model for affordable co‑living along Portsmouth high streets.
3. FLOC, MAZi, Hyem, Stef Leach, Broaden, Thurston Illustration, SHED, Artis & Henna Asikainen – Positive Disturbance – Realising Brownfield Potential, transforming brownfield land around Gateshead into a mixed‑use, ecological community.
Each finalist team has received a £5,000 development grant and bespoke communication workshops with creative partner Hayes Davidson, designed to help refine their concept storytelling and visual assets.
In a ceremony scheduled for 10 June 2025 at Heatherwick Studio’s “Making House” — as part of the London Festival of Architecture — the overall Davidson Prize winner will be awarded £10,000, along with a week of integrated support from Hayes Davidson to present their proposal to key UK housing stakeholders. On the same night, the recipient of the People’s Choice Prize, sponsored by Humanise, will also be announced following a public vote of nearly 2,000 participants.
Reflecting on the selection, judge Jonathan Falkingham, co‑founder of Urban Splash, commented:
“We were looking for the exciting communication of bold and do‑able ideas around delivering new homes and communities… our three finalists really nailed this year’s brief.”
Lucy Watson, Commissioning Editor at the Financial Times, added:
“It was a challenge choosing the three finalists from the longlist… very inspiring to see the thought and care put in by the teams… I look forward to delving deeper into their submissions.”
