Farmstead Road in Lewisham has been announced as the winner for this year’s Pineapple for Healthy Homes. The Pineapple for Healthy Homes is is run by the Developer Magazine and Festival of Place in association with the TCPA and supported by ROCKWOOL Limited.
The project for Phoenix Community Housing – a tenant-led housing association – with Buxton Building Contractors, Metropolitan Workshop, Jubb, BPTW, Potter Raper, Etude, LUC and PJR – stood out for its exceptional design quality, with all 24 units built to the PassivHaus standard. The scheme also contributes to much needed affordable family homes, with eight three-bedroom flats.
The homes at Farmstead Road feature generous internal layouts with ample storage and private outdoor spaces. Dual and triple-aspect designs optimise daylight and cross-ventilation. Wheelchair-user dwellings, located at ground floor level, provide direct access to outside spaces, including the communal garden, dedicated mobility storage and in-home wheelchair charging points. The site is well linked to public transport, shops, schools, green and play spaces, promoting active lifestyles and social inclusion.
The shortlisted schemes
The five other schemes shortlisted for the 2026 Pineapple for Healthy Homes include:
Rowan Court in Haringey is an entirely affordable housing scheme with 46 social rent dwellings and flats, led by Haringey council with Satish Jassal Architects, Formation Design and Build, Groundworks and Iceni. Responding to the shortage of affordable family homes in the borough, the scheme includes five 3-bed and three 4-bed homes, and even has intergenerational ‘granny flats’ set along side two of the family town houses.
Rowan Court homes meet the Nationally Described Space Standards and achieve 81% towards net-zero operational carbon, with MVHR, high insulation, air-source heat pumps, solar PV panels, and passive ventilation for indoor air quality. Local residents were offered the new homes first, keeping communities and families in the area. A new public square, widened streets, and landscaped pocket spaces enhance the public realm – benefitting the wider neighbourhood.
Citizens House in Lewisham is London’s first purpose-built Community Land Trust homes – for London Community Land Trust and Lewisham Citizens with Archio, Price and Myers, Stantec, Kinnear Landscape and ALD. It provides 11 genuinely affordable flats, priced at 65% of market value and linked to local wages in perpetuity.
Archio, chosen by residents via a public workshop, led an award-winning co-design process. The stepped building overlooks a co-created public courtyard, fostering interaction. Staggered balconies and wide walkways promote community cohesion and children’s play, demonstrating a deep commitment to resident wellbeing.
200 Becontree Avenue in Barking and Dagenham – for Be First with Archio, Spacehub, Butler and Young Associates, SCMS, Wilde and United Living. The scheme provides 19 affordable homes and a community hub, reimagining a disused site on the historic Becontree Estate.
The design delivers gentle density through two villa-style buildings that respect the area’s Neo-Georgian character. Prioritising triple-aspect, light-filled living spaces, Archio have created a development that actively aims to support wellbeing.
Kidbrooke Park Road North, in Royal Borough of Greenwich – for Greenwich Builds and Greenwich Council with HTA Design, Durkan, WSP and OCSC. It will be England’s largest new council housing scheme, ultimately delivering 452 homes. Phase one provides 122 net-zero, 100% affordable homes. For ongoing governance and monitoring, the project commits to a structured Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) to track residents lived experience and environmental performance, to be carried out one, three, and five years after completion.
Belle Vue, Camden for Pegasus Homes with Morris+Company, Architecture PLB Tibbalds, RISE, ISG, Elliott Wood and Max Fordham. Belle Vue is a holistic retirement community in Hampstead. Four interconnected buildings create a sequence of landscaped courtyards, gardens and terraces, with communal and neighbourhood facilities, including a public café open to all.
Health at the heart of placemaking
This years’ Pineapple awards is the second year of our Healthy Homes category. The teams involved in all the schemes have worked hard to achieve a high standard of home and placemaking – to support resident health and contribute to their neighbourhoods and wider area.
Several candidates described facing various market constraints which made it harder to deliver on quality, including sourcing more sustainable materials. Nevertheless, these schemes are a reminder of what is possible, with clear commitment and determination to put people’s health right at the heart of home making.
