The Davidson Prize

2026 RESULTS

The theme of The Davidson Prize 2026 is: Changing the Game: Building Play into Housing.

This year we called for new ideas unpacking the challenges facing play today, and seeking new solutions for people of all ages inside and outside our homes. We will soon be announcing the 2026 Longlist!

THE LONGLIST

This is Not a Road: A community-led toolkit for Play

Artform, CW Studio, Made It Together & Civic and Social

A community-led toolkit for adaptable play designs building on Manchester’s radical tradition

No Snakes, Just Ladders - Your second stairs can do more!

Barr Gazetas, Trigon Fire Safety, atelier ANF, #toylikeme

Reimagining the second staircase beyond safety as a space for joy, connection and curiosity

THE (Connected) GREAT (Green) PARK (Play) ESTATE

BPTW with: Farrer Huxley, Julie Futcher, Arup, and Play Disrupt

A thoughtful and sustainable landscape strategy for play space on a post war housing estate

TENEMENTAL PLAY

erz with Vasantha Piyasena

Re-imagining of the iconic Scottish tenement as social infrastructure

Court Rules

Field Section LLP + Dr Asa Roast + Studio Zine

An evolving kit of parts for gamifying shared parking space in a Birmingham suburb

RWP: Retrofitting Water Play

India Aspin Studio & Helen Bickford, Education Officer, British Ecological Society

Bringing a sense of fun and eco awareness into rainwater drainage

SLOW PLAY

Intervention Architecture, Parakeet & Oobe

Promoting relaxed socialising and play in inner city Birmingham, particularly for women and girls

Toy Box

Places not Postcodes

A joined up, resident-led play proposal for encouraging ownership of space

Play Your Part

Root And Erect, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Gemma Keaney

A cross-generational game prompting players to reimagine how playfulness can shape daily life

PLAYDECK

R.U.A Studio

Repurposing decommissioned Routemaster buses into mobile play centres

Mewsings on Play

Urban Radicals with Sebastian Tiew, Derin Fadina and Webb Yates

A new model for affordable housing designed to promote mutual support, collective governance, and intergenerational play

Follow the Worm (to a place it calls home)

Wiggle Works

A residential outdoor play strategy focused on SEN communities

JUDGES

Deborah Saunt Founding Director DSDHA

Zafir Ameen Head of School Programmes Open City

Russ Edwards Project Director Latimer

Neil Emery Director Clifton Emery design

Vicky Spratt Housing & Society Correspondent The i Paper

Expert Advisor – Dinah Bornat Founding Director ZCD Architects