Architects behind an award-winning council estate hailed a “modern masterpiece” could yet emulate the scheme in Canterbury.

Mikhail Riches is one of four firms chosen by the city council to design new social housing across the district.

In 2019 the company won the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) Stirling Prize - given annually to the “best new building in the UK” - for its Goldsmith Street development in Norwich.

The city council now hopes the architects will help deliver similar eco-schemes in the Canterbury district.

Goldsmith Street comprises 93 highly energy-efficient council homes and has been held up as “the future” of such developments.

The spacious terraced properties are designed to have minimal fuel bills, with annual energy costs an estimated 70% cheaper than for the average home - sure to be a welcome boon in a time of skyrocketing energy prices.

Designed by Mikhail Riches and architect Cathy Hawley, it was the first social housing scheme to win the coveted award and prompted many, including MP Rosie Duffield, to call for the project to be imitated in Canterbury.

In an open letter to the city council in 2019, she wrote: “The development shows us how we should be thinking about new housing projects.

“Where Goldsmith Street is inspirational, I have watched East Kent Housing struggle to make its properties habitable.

“Social housing stocks in the constituency are low; what there is is too often simply not good enough.

“Good design, the investment of serious resources both intellectual and financial, should not be limited to grand projects.

“Our council houses should be as beautiful as our art galleries.”

Three years on, following a city council tender process that saw 29 firms apply, Mikhail Riches has been chosen as one of four firms to design a tranche of new social housing for Canterbury.

The firm, which has offices in Whitstable, has been selected alongside Bell Phillips Architects, Fuse Architects and Levitt Bernstein Associates.

The firms will help assess more than 150 plots of land - ranging from garages to disused land on estates - that have been identified as potential sites for new council homes.

The council will initially focus on land at Warwick Road on the Spring Lane estate, where it hopes to build eight homes, and on the former Sturry Road Social Club site in East Street, where it plans to build 10.

A city council spokesman described the appointment of the four architectural firms as “incredibly exciting”.

The spokesman said: “We’re looking forward to tapping into their expertise to help us to think in different ways to help us deliver much-needed housing.

“Building new housing on disused or underused council land is not without its challenges which include the number of homes on each site, the sorts of homes we need, planning constraints, access for vehicles and financial viability.

“But if we don’t ask the questions of the experts with a hope to be ambitious, we will never know what is possible.”

The news of the architects’ appointment comes after figures revealed no social housing has been built in the district for 11 years.

There are almost 3,000 households on the council’s waiting list for a home.

Low-energy, sunny homes

The council’s housing lead has hailed Goldsmith Street as “the type of scheme any local authority would be proud of ”.

The development comprises rows of two-storey terraced houses bookended by three-storey flats, each with their own roomy lobby for prams and bikes, and private balcony.

The light, airy homes are south-facing and heated by the sun through “passive” solar energy.

Even minute details were meticulously considered by architects, such as letterboxes built into external porches rather than front doors, to reduce the possibility of draughts.

Joe Howes, Canterbury council's lead councillor for housing, described it as “the type of scheme any local authority would be proud of”.

He said the authority hopes “to create communities that people would want to call home and meet high environmental standards”.

“This is important as it will help the council meet its climate targets and more importantly provide tenants a home with relatively low running costs,” he said.

“The Mikhail Riches scheme in Norwich meets all the attributes I would like to see in new developments moving forward, a passivhaus (the “gold standard in energy efficiency”) and high density scheme.”