When Norwich City Council’s Goldsmith Street project was named the 2019 winner of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA’s) Stirling Prize last month, the built environment community sat up and took notice.

The 105-home scheme, close to the city’s historic ‘golden triangle’ area, is the first social housing development to win the famous prize in its 23-year history. Built to the Passivhaus standard, a set of energy efficiency measures for homes that can result in a 75% reduction in heating requirement when compared with standard new-builds, the scheme has thrown a spotlight on the benefits of green residential development. It has also shown that the community-led design of submarket housing can work.

So what makes Goldsmith Street so special? And what can developers – in both the public and private sectors – learn from such a high-profile coup?