The Royal Institute of British Architecture (RIBA) has released the shortlist for this year’s Stirling Prize, the UK’s most prestigious architecture prize that is presented annually to the ‘building that has made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture in the past year’. This year’s six shortlisted projects range from seemingly simple yet highly innovative London Olympic Stadium to the thoughtful and intimate Maggie’s Cancer Centre in Glasgow. The winner will be announced in October at the RIBA Stirling Prize dinner.
Follow the break for the complete shortlist and more details about the RIBA Stirling Prize.
2012 RIBA Stirling Prize Shortlist:
- The Hepworth Wakefield,Yorkshire / David Chipperfield Architects
- London Olympic Stadium, London / Populous
- The Lyric Theatre, Belfast / O’Donnell + Tuomey
- Maggie’s Centre, Gartnavel, Glasgow / OMA
- New Court, London / OMA with Allies and Morrison
- Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge / Stanton Williams
RIBA PresidentAngela Brady stated: “The annual RIBA Stirling Prize celebrates architectural excellence and this year we have an incredibly strong list of contenders. All of the shortlisted buildings demonstrate the essence of great architecture; they are human-scale buildings, places to inspire, entertain, educate and comfort their visitors and passers-by. Every building not only works beautifully from within but has a superb relationship with its surroundings, with a strong interplay between the two. They don’t shout ‘look at me’ and even the tallest building, New Court in the City of London, has created good views for passing pedestrians, meeting the challenge of delivering good urban design in an historic area. The 2012 RIBA Stirling Prize judges have a difficult job to select a winner from this pool of great talent. I can’t wait to see which project they choose.”
The RIBA Stirling Prize is for projects ‘built or designed in Britain’. Buildings are eligible if they are in the UK or European Union by an architect whose head office is in the UK. The prize was set up in 1996 and is named after the great British architect Sir James Stirling (1926 – 1992). It is presented in association with The Architects’ Journal and Benchmark, and the winning architect receives a cash prize of £20,000.
Buildings need to enter and win an RIBA Award for architectural excellence in order to be judged for the RIBA Stirling Prize. The RIBA Awards are announced in May each year and are judged by a regional Jury. A separate jury is then created to form the RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist.
For the past two years, Zaha Hadid Architects has claimed the prize with the Evelyn Grace Academy (2011) and MAXXI Museum, Rome (2010).
