Hazelmead Wins National RIBA Award - And Why That Matters More Than Ever
We’ve written and shouted a lot about Hazelmead Cohousing over the years, and with good reason! It’s a project that speaks directly to three of the most pressing challenges facing the nation today: the affordable housing crisis, the climate emergency, and the loneliness epidemic.
So now, we’re celebrating something that feels not only like a win for us and the Hazelmead community, but a step forward for a movement: Hazelmead has won a National RIBA Award.
This isn’t just another accolade. This is recognition at the highest level for a project that does things differently. Hazelmead was initiated by local people, designed by and for the community, and delivered through a Community Land Trust (CLT), and this means that the homes remain affordable forever, through a local lettings policy that prioritises connection to the town and surrounding parishes.
In a time when housing too often feels like something done to people, where developments serve investors before residents, Hazelmead turns the model on its head. It is housing led by people, for people.
And it couldn’t be more timely.
Over 7.1 million people in the UK experience chronic loneliness. Hazelmead’s shared spaces, mutual support, and resident involvement tackle that head-on.
UK homes account for 20% of national carbon emissions. Hazelmead is powered by a renewable energy microgrid, dramatically reducing whole-life carbon emissions, and built using low-impact materials and design principles.
With house prices 8.3x the average income in many parts of the UK (11 x in Bridport), Hazelmead’s 100% affordable tenure is a radical, real-world solution that doesn’t compromise on quality or sustainability.
This award gives a bigger platform to a project that shows what’s possible when communities lead, professionals listen, and the system supports a different kind of outcome. It’s a call to action; to councils, housing associations, funders, and policymakers, to back more community-led development.
It’s taken 15 years, innumerable meetings, bold vision, and unshakable optimism to get here. Today, we celebrate a moment of recognition, and we hope, a sign of what’s to come.
Let this be proof: there is a better way to do housing, and at Hazelmead, this is it.
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