RIBA Stirling Prize Shortlist, British Architects, UK Architecture Prize, Buildings News, Pictures
Stirling Prize 2013 : Shortlisted Building + Architects
18 Jul 2013
2013 RIBA Stirling Prize Shortlist
UK Architecture Awards : News
RIBA Stirling Prize 2013 Shortlist
Stirling Prize Shortlisted Buildings + Architects, alphabetical:
Astley Castle, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, central England
by Witherford Watson Mann
photograph © J Miller
Judges citation:
• This sensitive scheme places the new building at the heart of the old. It shows creativity as well as preservation and conservation
• In the burnt-out ruins of 12th century fortified manor, the architects have created a new house which allows Landmark Trust guests to experience life in an old castle yet in immediate environs that are distinctly 21st century
• Astley Castle demonstrates that working within sensitive historic contexts requires far more than the specialist skills of the conservation architect: this is an important piece of architecture, beautifully detailed and crafted
• The decision to put the bedrooms and bathrooms on the ground floor and the communal spaces above makes the experience of the house very special
Chapel at Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire, southern England
by Niall Maclaughlin
photograph © Niall Ferguson
Judges citation:
• Built to serve a theological college and a small religious order of nuns, the chapel defies its diminutive scale to provide an uplifting spiritual space of great potency
• This is a materially rich scheme: above an ashlar base the principal material is a cream limestone hand-broken and laid criss-cross with the raw ends exposed, producing an extraordinarily rich texture
• The building is rich in its allusions to architectural history yet possess the power to impact on any passer-by
• A ribbon of high windows floods the chapel and its ambulatory with even light. The delicate timber structure is of blonde wood. This is an church for all seasons and serves equally all the diverse branches of the Anglican Church
• Cuddeston fulfils its complex brief with a lyrical grace
Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre, Northern Ireland
by Heneghan Peng
photo : Marie-Louise Halpenny
Judges citation:
• This elegant, powerful visitor centre appears to be born of its place; the irregular lines of basalt columns grow and recede into the landscape to form the building edges, with the building roof a part of the dramatic landscape
• Visitor Centres are hard to do; this one serves as shop, café and exhibition without any one function over-powering what is a simple, telling piece of architecture
• Visitor Centres are normally self-effacing buildings fulfilling the needs of visitors but careful not to draw the limelight. This one pulls of that difficult trick of being a destination in its own right without upstaging the principal event – the causeway which is set a kilometre apart and invisible from it
• The internal space is made from a large concrete soffit with slices of roof lights and slots between the basalt allowing natural light deep into the heart of the building
Newhall Housing, Harlow, Essex, southern England
by Alison Brooks Architects
photo : Paul Riddle
Judges citation:
• The 84 unit Newhall Be scheme demonstrates the added value that good architects can bring to the thorny problem of housing people outside our major cities. ABA have worked with housing developer Galliford Try and persuaded them that investing in quality adds to their bottom line
• By halving the size of the gardens – creating roof terraces in total equalling the land ‘lost’ – the architects managed to get an extra six houses on to the development. This paid for extras such as full-height windows, dedicated studies and convertible roof space, things which don’t feature in the standard housebuilders’ products
• The 10.5m x 9.5m plot size for the courtyard houses, which predominate, is a clever manipulation of internal/external space, incorporating simple effective moves such as the gentle angling of the flank walls and balconies to avoid overlooking
• The overall scheme raises the bar for suburban housing developments that – if emulated could and should have a significant impact on development across the country
• This is a fine achievement in its own right. In the context of much of the UK’s new housebuilding it is truly exceptional
Park Hill, Sheffield, Yorkshire, northern England
by Hawkins/Brown and Studio Egret West
photograph © Daniel Hopkinson
Judges citation:
• Together the two firms of architects have worked with developers Urban Splash to address the contradictory demands of conservation and commerce and to bring back to life a Sheffield landmark
• The original aspiration of the late 1950s blocks to resemble an Italian hill village had degenerated into a sorry place to be – the completed first phase once again gives the people of Sheffield and visitors a building that excites and inspires
• The original streets in the sky have been made safe with security measures and a metre borrowed from their generous width to add to the accommodation. Set back doorways and corner windows also humanise these spaces
• The architects have doubled the amount of glazing, while retaining the character of the original concrete and exposing inside the split-level apartments but walls have been removed to full them with light
• The vibrant coloured panels borrow from the gradated pastel colours of the original brickwork, giving a Corbusian vigour to the facades
University of Limerick Medical School and Pergola Bus Shelter, Republic of Ireland
by Grafton Architects
photograph © Dennis Gilbert
Judges citation:
• It is not easy to create good architecture on an incredibly tight budget and previous architectural experiments on the Limerick Campus have been mixed, but Grafton Architects have taken an ordinary programme for the student housing and a series of muscular buildings that despite their modest size, have a scale and weight and create a point of entry to the campus
• Facing is the medical school which is cool grey and monolithic, another relatively modest building with a strong presence. The central space of the medical school soars above the entry, rich in timber details against massive concrete, with views up to a study area overlooking the atrium, and further still to bridges and windows on higher levels
• This building feels like it punches well above its weight. It transforms simple teaching and study spaces into rich, theatrical spaces, with a generosity that verges on the heroic
• The heroic bus shelter that completes the fine hard-landscaped square also forms a dramatic entrance to a neighbouring restaurant pavilion (by other hands). This is place-making of the first order
RIBA Stirling Prize Shortlist information from RIBA
RIBA Stirling Prize for best new building
Location: UK
Stirling Prize
Stirling Prize Background
RIBA Awards : contenders for the Stirling Prize
RIBA Stirling Prize Winner in 2012 : Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge
Design: Stanton Williams
photograph © Hufton+Crow
Stirling Prize Awards background on shortlist / buildings / architects / odds / favourite
The RIBA Stirling Prize is awarded to the architects of the building that has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year.
Stirling Prize 2012 : further information on the shortlisted buildings
Architecture Awards
Pritzker Prize architects – Architect Winners
Comments re Stirling Prize Shortlist 2013 welcome: info(at)e-architect.com