Housing Design Awards: Northern Series 2026

The Housing Design Awards: Northern Series brings the country’s most rigorous assessment of residential design to Manchester, with a programme focused specifically on high-density housing models and their suitability for replication across the North. Held at the Science and Industry Museum, the event brings together architects, developers, housing associations and planners to examine shortlisted projects in detail and hear from the teams behind them.

The Housing Design Awards are among the most respected in the residential sector, with a judging methodology that assesses completed buildings against original intentions and evaluates how well they perform for the people who live in them. The Northern Series focuses the lens on projects relevant to northern cities and towns, where the housing challenge, in terms of density, tenure mix and regeneration context, often differs significantly from the patterns seen in London and the South East.

For architects and designers working in the residential sector, the event provides a useful forum for understanding what is being recognised as genuinely successful housing at a national level, alongside the opportunity to engage with clients, commissioners and peers from across the region.