A London architecture practice focused on housing, retrofit and masterplanning, winner of the 2019 RIBA Stirling Prize for Goldsmith Street in Norwich.
Mikhail Riches is a London architecture practice founded in 2015 by Annalie Riches and David Mikhail. Its precursor, Riches Hawley Mikhail Architects, was set up in 2005 to focus on social housing. The practice works on housing and mixed-use neighbourhoods, and also on education, leisure, retrofit and masterplanning, mainly for local authorities and private developers. It is based at Newman Street in central London.
The practice describes its ethos as sustainable and socially inclusive design. Projects aim for low-carbon building and use, and for neighbourhoods where communities can form and grow. It puts people ahead of cars and promotes active travel, and it uses post-occupancy analysis, meaning it goes back to see how homes work for residents, and feeds that into later projects. Annalie Riches has said she set out to show that architects can design strong social housing, and has said she dislikes the label "social housing" because homes should be designed the same way whatever the tenure.
Its best-known work is Goldsmith Street in Norwich, completed in 2019 for Norwich City Council: 105 Passivhaus homes (very energy-efficient homes) laid out as streets. It won the 2019 RIBA Stirling Prize, the only social-housing scheme to do so in the award's history. Current work includes the next phases of Park Hill in Sheffield for Urban Splash, zero-carbon homes for York City Council and Hackney Council, a leisure and housing masterplan for Ealing Council, and a decarbonisation plan with new rooms at Queens' College, Cambridge.
On how the practice sees its field, Annalie Riches told Dezeen in 2024 that design quality in housing is improving as more architects want to build good homes, but that the political will to do more is missing. She said the studio has walked away from some projects where the way they were bought would have lowered quality, and that council work is becoming hard for practices of its size. The practice also has a record of recognition: the Stirling Prize, nine RIBA Awards and 15 Housing Design Awards. These are the practice's own figures and an interview, not independently checked.
A practice with this focus employs architects and architectural assistants, urban designers and masterplanners, sustainability and retrofit specialists, and the support staff who run a studio. If you care about how homes are designed, who gets to live well, and how the climate can be part of everyday design, the practice is a good case study. Its website lists current projects and any vacancies. Staff numbers were not stated in the sources we read.
Website: www.mikhailriches.com
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