Rowan Court, 46 Haringey council homes for social rent in Seven Sisters, has won RIBA's Neave Brown Award 2026 for the UK's best new affordable housing.

A block of 46 Haringey council homes in Seven Sisters has been named the best new affordable housing in the UK. Rowan Court won the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Neave Brown Award 2026, the council announced on 22 October.

Every home is let at social rent. Seven Sisters is about two and a half miles east of Crouch End, at the Tottenham end of the borough.

The council describes Neave Brown, after whom the award is named, as a “pioneering social housing architect”. RIBA describes it as recognising “the UK’s best new affordable housing”.

What beat what

Rowan Court was one of four schemes RIBA shortlisted in August. The winner was due to be named at the RIBA Stirling Prize ceremony at Old Billingsgate on 15 October. The other three were:

  • Canada Water Plot K1, in Southwark
  • Lion Green Road, in Croydon
  • St Andrew’s Drive Phases 2 and 3, in Glasgow

The shortlist was drawn only from winners of this year’s RIBA UK Awards. The jury was chaired by Helen Lee of the architects Witherford Watson Mann. Its members included Tabitha Oakley-Brown, Neave Brown’s granddaughter.

What was built

RIBA’s project page says the scheme replaced former garages and leftover land on the edge of an existing 1970s council estate. It was designed by Satish Jassal Architects for Haringey Council.

The 46 homes are:

Type Homes
Flats 31
Townhouses 11
Wheelchair accessible homes 4
Intergenerational maisonettes 4

RIBA lists these features:

  • every home is fully electric, heated by air source heat pumps, with solar panels
  • an 81% cut in carbon on site
  • every home faces at least two ways
  • no car parking at all
  • a community garden designed with residents
  • a new overlooked footpath linking the estate to public transport through an existing underpass

Lee called the scheme “an exemplary resolution to a complex urban and social challenge”.

Five people on stage holding a RIBA award certificate, with a photograph of Rowan Court on the screen behind them.
Collecting the Neave Brown Award at the RIBA ceremony. Photo: supplied by Haringey Council

What the council said

Cllr Jo Kuper, the cabinet member for resident services and tackling inequality, collected the award with the architect Satish Jassal. She said:

“Rowan Court shows that council housing can be architecturally ambitious, environmentally sustainable and designed around the needs of residents.”

It is the scheme’s fourth award. The council lists the others as:

  • a RIBA London Award 2026
  • a Housing Design Award 2025
  • a Civic Trust Award 2026

What it means for you

  • If you are on Haringey’s housing register, the award does not add homes or change how council homes are allocated.
  • It sets the bar for what comes next. The council said on 22 October it is investing to move more than 1,000 residents out of temporary accommodation. Our report on the borough’s 818 empty council homes has the other side of that picture.
  • It shows what Haringey wants its new council homes to look like: all electric, car free, and built on former garages and leftover land.

Sources