Winner: Housing project of the year 2019. This social housing building in Los Angeles, California by Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects features a green roof and a community centre.
The project, called MLK1101, also houses a herb garden and retail spaces to foster wellness and community for those in need. The 26 affordable housing units were built in response to an urgent need in Los Angeles for housing catered to formerly homeless veterans, the chronically homeless and low-income households. The architecture studio collaborated with Clifford Beers Housing to transform a vacant, unimproved lot to comprise a four-storey building and a smaller volume built at street level.

Judges comments: Judges discussed the weight and relevance of the building and how difficult it must have been to create this sort of project with limited means. They added that “it ranks very highly in terms of being beneficial to society and its interiority is communal within a context where housing is a major issue.”

Architect: Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects (LOHA)
Project: MLK1101 Supportive Housing
Winner of: Housing project of the year
Read more: Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects