Stephen Witherford of Witherford Watson Mann discusses the practice's 2025 Stirling Prize winning project Appleby Blue Almshouses.

Stephen is in the unusual position of being able to reflect on Appleby Blue alongside another of the practice’s projects, Astley Castle, which won the Stirling Prize in 2013.

Stephen’s talk, entitled ‘The Heart of the Matter’, will take place at Norwich University of the Arts’ Duke Street Riverside building on Thursday 19 November at 6:00pm, with the talk starting at 7:00pm. Refreshments will be provided by RIBA Norfolk with the generous support of RG Carter.

Photo: Philip Vile

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Stephen Witherford writes:

Through the repetition of chance, winning two Stirling Prizes, 12 years apart, I thought it would be interesting to reflect on the two winning projects and consider them together – the conditions that we encountered, the way we re-imagined these, and the physical and social outcomes that have evolved from this imagination.

It is not obvious how responding to the ruined remains of Astley Castle, at risk of being completely lost, might share any similarities with building the contemporary Appleby Blue almshouse, to provide the opportunity for older people to start again in life. How does making a short-term holiday rental house for 8, mostly financially well-off people, relate to making social housing for 65 people who are in some form of need, to reside for the rest of their lives? Not least, does building in Warwickshire’s rural countryside tell us something about how we might build in the heart of our cities?

This talk pursues these questions with no preconceptions; exploring the deep and complex relationship between the physicality of buildings and the social experiences that unfold from these. It is never clear to us, until a building has been lived in for a period of time, what we have actually done. Only then does the reality begin to be revealed.

Description supplied by the event organiser.