The Davidson Prize

Deborah is a Founding Director of the architecture, landscape and research studio DSDHA. She leads high-profile spatial strategies, urban masterplans and public realm proposals developed through extensive dialogue with communities, stakeholders and collaborators, with the aim of delivering projects that empower communities and create social value.

Recent and ongoing projects include the reinvention of the National Youth Theatre’s London headquarters; Exchange Square, a new park for the City of London above Liverpool Street Station; and the Central Somers Town Urban Framework, which revitalises a neighbourhood in central London through a series of spatial and architectural interventions, alongside the creation of a safe and inclusive public realm that caters to children and adults across the area’s diverse demographic.

DSDHA has been recognised with 20 RIBA Awards to date, shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize, and twice nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award.

Deborah is deeply committed to democratising architecture. She helped establish the Jane Drew Prize, which recognises female architectural designers who have significantly raised the profile of women in the field, and is a Founding Director of the London School of Architecture, which focuses on broadening access to the profession and developing new collaborative forms of research and practice.

Russ is a qualified architect and development professional with over 25 years of experience in award-winning architectural practice and development roles, having worked at dRMM, Pocket Living and Lendlease.

He currently works at Latimer as the Project Director for the Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community, which is expected to provide around 7,750 new homes, thousands of new jobs and a new country park, adhering to garden community principles and adopting a regenerative design approach. Latimer is the development arm of Clarion Housing Group, the largest social landlord in the UK with over 350,000 people calling a Clarion home their own.

Russ is also Vice Chair at Commonweal Housing; an action learning charity working to investigate, test and share housing solutions to social injustice and is a member of the London Borough of Barnet’s Quality Review Panel.

Neil has practiced urban design for over 35 years. He is passionate about creating places that provide long-lasting legacy and pleasure for the people who experience them. Neil was one of the founders of Clifton Emery design in 2012. The practice has gone from strength to strength since then and is now well known for its high-quality forward-thinking design.

Neil has directed many of the practice’s award-winning schemes and is determined about ensuring CEd delivers well considered projects that fit client aspirations and are relevant to the communities in which they are developed. Each project sets out to represent well integrated urban design, architecture, and landscape design. An important touchstone for the practice’s working methods and design approach.

In the first decade of his career Neil practiced urban design in the public sector working for Plymouth City Council – this included working alongside the MBM team lead by David Mackay on the 2003 A Vision for Plymouth, as well as many other strategic regeneration projects for the city.

Subsequent years have been in private practice. Working across both sectors has provided an important insight and understanding of the challenges faced from a variety of perspectives. This has provided a strong foundation for leading on complex visioning, strategic master planning, and regeneration work in a variety of different contexts for public, private, and community sector clients.

Vicky Spratt is an award-winning journalist, author, and housing rights advocate. She has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize two years in a row (2023, 2024).

Her first book, Tenants, was a Financial Times book of the year in 2022. Vicky’s second book, We Were Promised The Moon, will be published in 2026 with Fourth Estate. It is an agenda-setting analysis of how the economic settlement of the last 30 years has fundamentally reshaped life for young adults today.

Vicky is a correspondent and columnist at The i Paper, and her writing has also appeared in other publications, such as ELLE and Refinery29. She is also a regular contributor to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Newsnight, Radio 4, the Andrew Marr Show on LBC, and the Newsagents.