The Oscar of British architecture, the RIBA Stirling Prize presented in association with The Architect’s Journal, celebrated it's 10th anniversary in 2005. This prestigious £20,000 prize, which takes its name from the late Sir James Stirling, is awarded to the designers of the building that is judged to have made the greatest contribution to British architecture over the past year.
Credit: Keith Hunter
EMBT/RMJM Ltd - Edingburgh, Scotland
WINNER of the RIBA Stirling Prize 2005
Completed three years late and more than ten times over budget, costing around £430 million, this was perhaps the most controversial and expensive building on the shortlist. This was compounded by the fact that the 1999 Scottish elections resulted in the architect's being answerable to 129 different clients (Members of the Scottish Parliament - MSPs) and the deaths of Enric Miralles, the architect in 2000 and that of Donald Dewar, the building's original champion and visionary three months later.
However the Scottish Parliament is a unique work of art. It is a campus of several buildings whose exterior seems to reflect the landscape which surrounds it, fulfilling the architects hope that the Parliament would 'arrive into the city almost surging out of the rock'. If the exterior is bold and imposing, the inside of the Parliament buildings is extraordinary, described by turns as rich, intricate, strange, beautifully crafted, the stuff of fairy tales.
Credit: Roland Halbe
Zaha Hadid Architects - Leipzig, Germany
Zaha Hadid’s extraordinary design for BMW’s £34 million Leipzig plant aims to bring together factory and office in a shared experience of manufacturing cars. The BMW Central Building is a communication knot, a centralized node connecting three production buildings, providing a common space for workers, management, technicians and visitors.
When viewed from outside this building perhaps resembles a sprawling shopping mall but up close it is entirely different. Its entrance is dramatic and sculpted, a vast arrangement of concrete fins, beams and glass. The lobby is generous, it allows views deep into the building and is occasionally punctuated by courtyards to admit daylight and improve visibility deeper into the space.
There are two particularly remarkable and theatrical features of this fluid, sinuous creation. One is the audit zone, a central focus point in which technicians dismantle every 50th car produced in order to check for quality and consistency. But the highlight of the show is the theme that ties it all together: the cars themselves, which glide, half-finished, along conveyor belts suspended high above the heads of workers and visitors, on their silent journey from one production area to another.
Credit: Dennis Gilbert
O’Donnell and Tuomey - University College, Cork, Ireland
Opposition to the idea of building an art gallery in the old gardens of University College, Cork, was hardly surprising. The site is a tranquil beauty spot on the banks of the River Lee, hardly an appropriate setting for a flashy art gallery in the Bilbao Gugghenheim mould.
Fortunately, O’Donnell + Tuomey, the firm of Dublin architects, approached the project with great sensitivity. Instead of constructing a ‘statement’ building, they built an enormous, graceful treehouse that blends into its natural surrounds. The teak-clad gallery space is supported by trunk-like pillars and is approached from below. The base, like the old university buildings, is made of local limestone. No trees were removed in order to clear a space for the gallery, nor does it rise above the tree line, it is raised among the trees, not above them. Inside the most of the gallery gives way to large window vistas of the city of Cork itself.
Credit: Nigel Young
Foster and Partners - Woking, Surrey
Like the BMW building in Leipzig, the McLaren centre works hard: it is both factory and office block, housing a staff of nearly 1,000 people, but also Formula One necessities such as the bespoke wind tunnel, a 145-metre long tube used for testing racing cars which lies at the heart of the complex. It is the tunnel which generates so much heat that it necessitates a lake to cool it.
The centre is large and low-slung – the architects had a further constraint when designing the centre in that they were building on green belt land. Considering this is a vast complex, it is unobtrusive, with much hidden underground, yet it is well organised enough to let in plenty of light.
Ron Dennis, chairman and CEO of McLaren Group describes the technology centre as 'a showcase of industrial architecture' and as 'ninety-five per cent the automotive form of NASA and five per cent theatre.'
Credit: Peter Cook
Bennett Associates with Lomax Cassidy and Edwards - Brighton, Sussex
The architects, Cassidy and Edwards have created a building which is intelligent in every sense: it is cleverly lit, heated and ventilated, it is eco-friendly, it uses modern materials to stunning effect and the public love it. Visitor numbers have trebled since the Jubilee replaced Brighton’s old library. What’s more, it has been cleverly financed, too. The £14 million Jubilee Library is a public finance initiative (PFI) project, part paid for Brighton & Hove City Council, part subsidised by private enterprise.
The library is fronted by a glass box, coated in metallic blue hand glazed tiles made by a local ceramicist. Inside, the lending library occupies the first floor. Resembling an open, airy market square it is far cry from the traditional crowded, dark and musty library space. The ceiling is double height, and the reference library forms a deck on the second floor.
Alsop Design - Harlesden
This is a huge, brightly coloured, vibrant tent-like structure, which forms the focal point in the regenerated Stonebridge estate and was built on a shoestring, for just £2.3 million.
Most local authority nurseries comprise a central bungalow surrounded by an open air play area, useless for much of the year thanks to the British climate. But architect William Alsop was determined to get away from the traditional nursery style which he claims seems 'designed to stifle the childhood imagination.' Instead, he has built an enormous 'circus tent' like structure, which is playful, mischievous, safe and practical: a fantastic resource for parents and pre-school children in one of London’s most deprived areas.
Six of the world's architectural best: the 2009 RIBA Stirling Prize winner and the full shortlist
Kevin McCloud's final journey takes him to the art and architecture of ancient Greece
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