The longlist for the second annual Davidson Prize highlights 14 concepts for co-living and the challenges of single-person and single-parent households, loneliness and the housing shortage.
Included in this year's longlist in response to the theme of Co-Living – A New Future is a proposal for a shared housing model to re-invigorate rural communities, a multi-generational co-living development designed around the needs of children and a concept for refugee integration.
Those participating in this year's prize, including architecture studios Charles Holland Architects, Tonkin Liu and artist Verity-Jane Keefe, were asked to consider whether current the UK's models for homes and home living are representative of the 21st century.
Some of the challenges addressed in each of the proposals focus on the growing single-person and single-parent households, loneliness and issues of mental health, housing shortages and responses to refugee crises.
The Davidson Prize is a design idea and communications prize that was established by the Alan Davidson Foundation in 2021 in memory of the Scottish architectural visualiser Alan Davidson, who died from Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in 2018.
"The calibre of submissions for this year’s prize was really impressive and it was interesting to see how people’s approaches to co-living may have changed in the aftermath of the pandemic," said chair of The Davidson Prize jury, Paul Monaghan.
"Although there are similarities in many of the submissions, each of the 14 longlisted teams put forward an innovative solution to this year’s theme."
"Each submission raised great discussions amongst the judges. I’m impressed with how the teams have expressed their ideas both with strong written statements and varied and interesting visuals," explained Alan Davidson Foundation director Marie Chamillard.
The second edition of the prize follows the success of the inaugural prize in 2021, which saw the app concept HomeForest by architects Haptic, creative studio Squint/Opera, sound designer Coda to Coda, bio-design specialist Yaoyao Meng and poet LionHeart selected as its winner.
The judging panel for this second edition includes artist Yinka Ilori, Dezeen's editor-at-large Amy Frearson, educator and curator Manijeh Verghese, as well as architects Paul Monaghan, Mary Duggan and Agnieszka Glowacka.
The panel will shortlist three finalists who will receive £5,000 to develop and expand their design concepts and ultimately present a two-minute visual presentation to the jury.
This year, the competition will also run a People's Choice Award, for which the general public is invited to vote for its favourite entry. Details about all 14 proposals can be found on the Davidson Prize website.
See the longlist in full below:
› Azhar Architecture: Co-Living Retrofit
› Baillie Baillie Architects and Community Land Scotland: A Culture of Community
› Charles Holland Architects, Quality of Life Foundation, Verity-Jane Keefe and Joseph Zeal-Henry: Co-Living in The Countryside
› Child-Hood: It Takes A Village
› Child Graddon Lewis, Split, Eley Kishimoto & Hungry Sandwich: Curious Minds Society
› Heta Architects: Recipro-City
› Living Streets: Urban Network of Collective Care
› Moebius Studio: Communiversity
› NAME Architecture and airc.digital: Afterlife
› Team 5: Retrofitting Co-Living
› The Progressive Housing Design Group: A Model for Progressive ‘Family’ Housing
› Tonkin Liu: Care/Ring
› Will King and Hari Kumar: A Taste of Home
› Workhome Projects: Co-Living Works!