RIBA Stirling Prize 2007 Architects' Journal's Top 50

Date Published:

24/06/2008

Here are the best of the rest...

Credit: Keith Hunter

Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EMBT + RMJM
Opened three years late at a cost of £414m, at least ten times the original estimate, subject of public outcry and an enquiry led by Lord Fraser, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Scottish Parliament building has been an unmitigated disaster. Despite all of this, it is widely regarded as an architectural triumph, and won the 2005 RIBA Stirling Prize. The Parliament is in fact an intricate complex of buldings, covering multiple styles and an area of 31,000 square metres. Legend has it that designer Enric Miralles, who sadly died before the project was completed, entered the first design meeting brandishing assorted foliage and declared ‘This is the Scottish Parliament.’ Apocryphal this may be, but Miralles’ organic intentions have clearly been carried through, in buildings which appear to emerge from iconic landmarks like Arthur’s Seat, using Scottish rock and wood as primary materials. Viewed in many critical quarters as a hugely successful exploration of national character, defiantly artistic architecture at its best, it is perhaps in the debating chamber itself that the Parliament makes its strongest political point: Its circular layout is arranged with the intention of avoiding the ‘adversarial’ politics of traditional institutions like the House of Commons.

Anthony Gormley Studio

London
David Chipperfield Architects
Gormley himself has had no trouble imposing his constructions on the consciousness of the British public, with his Angel of the North in Gateshead rivalling any architect’s work for sheer dramatic impact. The 1994 Turner Prize winner has also recently achieved notoriety for his series of 31 life-size figures dotted across London’s skyline. Sculptures of such scale and significance clearly require a rather special kind of space in which to work. David Chipperfield’s solution is over three times larger than Gormley’s original converted-laundry workshop in Peckham. The building is clearly designed with practical issues in mind, a functioning workshop rather than a showroom. Its sturdy steel construction led it to win the 2004 Galvinzers’ Association award, but perhaps its greatest achievement is the successful combination of light and space that allows Gormley to continue creating masterpieces on an ever-grander scale.

Credit: Helen Binet

The Collection, City & County Museum

Lincoln
Panter Hudspith
Lincoln has always been a town of two halves, with the spectacular historic cathedral sitting at the top of a steep hill, with pretty café-dotted streets leading down to the rather more mundane modern town centre. The Collection is an addition which goes some way towards pulling these elements together. Nestled on the hillside it combines a modern structure with a locally-sourced limestone exterior and a lead-look roof which mimics its illustrious neighbour, the Cathedral. Housing an extensive collection of archeological and historical artefacts, as well as fine art works by Turner, Lowry and former local resident Peter De Wint, it extends the capacity of the nearby Usher Gallery, designed in the 1920s by Sir Reginald Blomfield. Panter Hudspith’s new building won a RIBA Award in 2006 and was shortlisted for the Gulbenkian Award. Its glass-covered courtyard is inspired by the British Museum, and creates a new public space, linked to the central aim of creating a new Cultural Quarter for Lincoln.

Beetham Tower

Manchester
Ian Simpson Architects
Located on Deansgate in the heart of Manchester, the Beetham Tower is Europe’s tallest mixed-use building, at a height of 169 metres. The lower half of the building is taken up by a five-star Hilton hotel and bar, with the remainder residential apartments. This is the most recent of a series of buildings constructed by Ian Simpson in Manchester as part of the regeneration of the city following the 1996 IRA bombings. Earlier examples include the acclaimed Urbis exhibition centre and Number 1 Deansgate. Simpson himself owns the top floor penthouse, the highest living space in Britain. The building caused some local complaints when it was found that in windy conditions it produced a rather annoying whistling sound (which temporarily disrupted filming on Coronation Street, to the undoubted horror of most Mancunians) but it has otherwise been favourably received by the public and critics.

Arsenal (Emirates) Stadium

Holloway, London
HOK Sport
The relocation of a football ground is always an emotive issue for fans of the beautiful game. When it was announced that almost a century of Arsenal history, in the shape of the Highbury stadium, was to be demolished, replaced by luxury flats, and the team relocated to a new, corporate-monikered home in Ashburton Grove, there was predictable outcry from the Gunners’ loyal following. Since its opening in late 2006, however, complaints have died down and the stadium has been appreciated both in its functional capacity and as an architectural achievement, with 15,000 square metres of glazing making it a distinctive feature on the North London landscape. The stadium was designed by HOK Sport, who were also responsible for the Stadium Australia in Sydney, Royal Ascot Racecourse, and Wimbledon Centre Court.

Bridge of Aspiration, Royal Ballet School

Covent Garden, London
Wilkinson Eyre
When the RBS’s Upper School moved to new £16 million premises in Floral Street in 2003, it was decided that a link with the neighbouring Royal Opera House would provide an ideal motivating factor for aspiring dancers. The spectacular glass bridge, irreverently dubbed the Bridge of Perspiration by students, was designed by Martin Knight of Wilkinson Eyre Architects. Knight’s CV includes work on the Stirling Prize-winning Gateshead Millennium Bridge, and while this is on a much smaller scale, its intricacy makes it no less awe-inspiring. 23 square portals with glazed intervals, supported by an aluminium frame, combine to form a twisting, sloping concertina-style walkway. Much like the work of the best dancers within, its graceful, seemingly effortless end product conceals extraordinarily complex structures and techniques.

Credit: Morley von Sternberg

The Wellcome Trust Millennium Building, Wakehurst Place

Ardingly, West Sussex
Stanton Williams
The Millennium Seed Bank, housed in this impressive building at the heart of rural southern England, is at the forefront of a global project aimed at protecting wild plant species and raising public awareness of the need for conservation of precious natural resources. The low-level building with barrel-vaulted roofing is inspired by its surroundings, and conceals an underground frozen vault in which seeds are preserved. The buildings at ground level combine functioning labs, research facilities, and a central public space which acts as both a fascinating museum and an attractive winter garden. Architects Stanton Williams describe their creation as a ‘building that does not shout or wave banners’ but is intended to ‘evoke a sense of spirituality.’ With laudably lofty ambitions, it has been described as a ‘Noah’s Ark’ of seed-gathering, and should inspire many more to take this vital step towards safeguarding the future of the planet’s food crops.

Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art

Middlesborough
Erick van Egeraat
Occupying previously abandoned land on the edge of Middlesborough’s town centre, this Erick van Egeraat-designed gallery is intended to create a new cultural quarter at the heart of the post-industrial north-eastern town. Mayor Ray Mallon has expressed an aim to transform Middlesborough into a ‘designer label town,’ calling to mind the many recent attempts by tourist-starved cities to emulate the successes of the Guggenheim in Bilbao. But rather than a flamboyant architectural statement, van Egeraat’s gallery is a light and open building that creates space for its impressive collection to speak for itself. It holds the second largest collection of Picassos in the United Kingdom, as well as works by Francis Bacon, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol. Largely constructed from glass and limestone, an imposing 16-metre high foyer dominates the building, and leads out into a community-focused central square. The gallery expects to bring in 200,000 visitors by the end of 2007, which would certainly mark a welcome boost to the tourist industry in this all too rarely visited part of the country.

Credit: Sutherland Hussey

Newlyn and Penzance Arts Centres

Cornwall
MUMA
Since the opening of Tate St. Ives in 1993, Cornwall has been enjoying something of an artistic renaissance. You won’t find any watercolour seascapes here these days, instead there are attempts like this to recreate ‘the Bilbao effect’ on the South-West coast. The Newlyn Art Gallery has stood on the Penzance seafront since 1895, and its trustees have long desired a larger space for more impressive exhibitions, yet local resistance has hindered previous efforts. Young company MUMA’s solution is a modernization of the original gallery, hardly bigger than a house in its original form, and the complementary redevelopment of a grey concrete-clad former telephone exchange in Penzance. The architects, with the help of local ‘light artist’ Peter Freeman, have transformed the larger building’s façade by installing panels which change from blue to green as darkness falls, and respond to movement and changes in atmospheric pressure. The end result is a tourist-friendly centre for modern art in the area, not afraid to push boundaries in either art or architecture.