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PRP founders win Historic Award

21.07.2006

The founding members of PRP, originally formed as Phippen Randall Parkes, have walked away with the prestigious Historic Award for The Ryde in Hatfield at this year’s Housing Design Awards 2006.

The new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Ruth Kelly, presided over the awards ceremony and said:

“The second award I have been asked to make is the Historic Award. This is for a scheme that won an award in the past but still has lessons that we can learn from today. When a historic winner is singled out, it has to have something very special to stand out from a pool of nearly 900. This year's historic winner is a scheme that started a pattern for extended homeownership. House prices at the time - 1962 - meant that families on average incomes could not buy the home they wanted. These families were inspired to act for themselves by joining a co-operative for home ownership. Their ideas about community design were so clear and irresistible that those running a new town felt they had to support it.

“What this co-operative did illustrates just one approach from a range of routes to fulfilling choice. It began as a collective desire for better, more flexible houses and long-term community. It has proved its objective by never going out of fashion and on Sunday 16 July it celebrated its 40th birthday with many of its original residents either still there or returning to their spiritual home. That’s enduring appeal. It’s something the Georgians would have understood perfectly.

“The Historic Award winner is The Ryde in Hatfield, which was the first scheme by the now celebrated housing architects Phippen Randall Parkes, now PRP. Congratulations,”

Another scheme, Bywater Court in Allerton Bywater, Leeds, was also designed by PRP’s Adam Firth and shortlisted for a Housing Design Award.