6 Buildings Shortlisted for RIBA Stirling Prize 2018

The shortlist was culled from the 49 winners of the RIBA National Awards, which were announced one month ago. RIBA President Ben Derbyshire pointed out in today's shortlist announcement "that half of the buildings were commissioned by UK universities, suggesting that parts of the higher education sector value the importance of improving the quality of their buildings." The other three shortlisted projects are an office building, cemetery and art gallery.

Derbyshire further describes the shortlisted projects as "six buildings of real integrity and purpose," which appears to equate with formally tame or unadventurous -- minus the "Vortex" at Bloomberg's London HQ, carried out by Norman Foster with artist Olafur Eliasson. Take a look for yourself: the six shortlisted buildings are listed below in alphabetical order, with links to the project pages on RIBA's website and select quotes from the Stirling jury.

The winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize 2018 will be announced on 10 October 2018 at London's Roundhouse. Recent Stirling Prize winners include dRMM's Hastings Pier (2017), Caruso St. John's Newport Street Gallery (2016), and AHMM's Burntwood School (2015.

Bloomberg, London
Foster + Partners

"Occupying a whole block within the city, this project is a large office building to house all of Bloombergs employees under one roof for the first time. ... Overall the project is a tour-de-force. This is the opposite of a quiet understated building. In fact the multiplicity of invention at numerous levels is carried through with such conviction that you cannot fail but be impressed by it."

Bushey Cemetery
Waugh Thistleton Architects

"The architects, Waugh Thistleton, have a very strong, long term relationship with the Jewish community. They have completed a number of synagogues prior to this project and the simplicity, austerity even, of the means and materials used in this project are a reflection of this mutual respect, trust and empathy. Every aspect of the building layout and progress through the landscape are in keeping with the spirit of the event."

Chadwick Hall
Henley Halebrown

"The scheme is set in the grounds of the Georgian grade II* listed Downshire House which itself borders on the LCC’s Alton West Estate. ... The panel felt that the architects managed to create a welcoming and calm space by careful master planning responding in turn to the street and the listed building structures as well as the wider landscape and the modernist building to the perimeter of the site."

New Tate St Ives
Jamie Fobert Architects with Evans & Shalev

"The extended gestation of the reconfiguration and extension of the Tate St Ives has resulted in a building with more than twice as much gallery space which resolves the functional challenges of the original building, increases the car parking provision at the top of the site and creates an enhanced public route from top to bottom of the site. The visible manifestation of the new building is minimal and modest, underplaying its impact on the interior experience for visitors and staff."

Storey's Field Centre and Eddington Nursery
MUMA LLP

"This is the very highest quality architecture. It shows how an architect can add joy, an enhanced experience of materials and human dimension to every part of a building. The spaces in the nursery are worthy of a much more sophisticated audience, but are always based around the scale and activities in each space. Where small windows are needed they are arranged in the pattern of constellations of stars (even with the correct orientation), where a decorative circular window from the enclosed garden is made out of a ventilation inlet grille, it is evidence of the skill, imagination and continuous attention to detail of the architect. This is a truly well-crafted building, where material or technology is only used where it is needed."

The Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre
Niall McLaughlin Architects

"The setting for this building is unbeatable. It is beside a perfectly-mown cricket pitch within the secluded, rambling and idyllic garden of one of Oxford’s most historic colleges. ... The building is classical in spirit, with crisp proscenia and a slender stone stoa marching along the cricket pitch façade. ... It is the natural materials, superbly honed, that ground the building and make it belong. It is the architectural design – the timeless pursuit of ordering space and light and form - that makes it a thing of pure joy."