The shortlist for the coveted annual Stirling Prize from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has been announced! With six contesting projects to choose from, judges will begin visiting all six sites and will convene for a final vote on October 13, 2012. Among the six shortlisted projects are Maggie’s Cancer Centre and New Court Rothschild Bank, both by the OMA, London’s new Olympic Stadium by Populous, and David Chipperfield’s Wakefield, the Barbara Hepworth sculpture gallery in Yorkshire.
Founded in 1966, The RIBA Stirling Prize is given annually to a building and its practice, honoring the project as the “greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year.” Unlike the Pritzker Prize which acknowledges an architect for lifetime achievement, the Stirling honors a practice for one building per year, allowing projects to gain more recognition as they’re built. Along with a £20,000 prize, the Stirling also comes with front page news coverage and television promotions on channels like the BBC 2, giving architecture the fame and exposure that it rarely gets in society today.
Regarding the shortlisted projects, RIBA President Angela Brady expressed her ambivalence, as all the projects are on par with each other on levels of success and aesthetics. “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,” she said in a statement. “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.”
Take a look at the rest of the contesting projects:
