Ben Flatman, BD’s architectural editor, reviews a Stirling shortlist of solid projects, but considers it one that lacks excitement and has some glaring omissions
The Stirling Prize has always been about more than just the architecture. Each year the shortlist offers a snapshot of the profession’s preoccupations, the concerns of the jury, and perhaps even something about where we are as a society. This year’s list is no different, though it feels like a respectable rather than vintage crop of contenders.
Many will have been surprised that Allford Hall Monaghan Morris’ Tower Hamlets Town Hall did not even make the longlist. The practice’s brilliant reworking of the former Royal London Hospital, a major civic project that combines bold new interventions with the careful restoration of a grade II listed building, seemed an obvious candidate. That it won a RIBA London regional award but then failed to make the final 20 was even more peculiar.
It is encouraging to see Purcell, one of the country’s leading conservation specialists, receive recognition. Yet the Elizabeth Tower feels like an odd choice. Its nomination is worthy in principle, and it is certainly time that a pure conservation project received the prize, but this is not the sort of scheme to set the pulse racing. There is none of the drama of a once near-lost building being brought back to life.
Allies and Morrison’s London College of Fashion is a more obvious contender. This is a monumental building, anchoring Stratford’s East Bank. It has the sort of vast atrium and dramatic staircases that only seem possible in major public projects.
From the outside the building rather looms over its context, but in reality it has turned out better than many of the renderings suggested. This feels like a serious and credible piece of public architecture and one that would make a worthy winner.
By contrast, Herzog and de Meuron’s Discovery Centre in Cambridge, delivered in collaboration with BDP, feels like a project from another era. It is another example of one of our leading universities attempting to appear “with it” by appointing a practice that arguably peaked in the early 2000s.
Much of Herzog and de Meuron’s recent work carries the sense of being produced on a well-worn production line. The Blavatnik School of Government building in Oxford already looks dated and awkward, and it is hard to see the Discovery Centre ageing any better.
Its vast glass-clad doughnut form appears disinterested in its context and offers little sense of place, a weakness it shares with its neighbours. Laboratories are buildings whose requirements change rapidly, and this one may prove difficult to adapt as scientific priorities evolve.
Striking though it is, it does not feel like architecture that addresses current concerns, instead being reminiscent of the peak starchitect form-making culture of a couple of decades ago.
Two private houses have also made the list. Niwa House by Takero Shimazaki and Hastings House by Hugh Strange are both finely crafted pieces of architecture and a reminder of the continuing importance of the private house commission as a source of work for the profession.
However, the commissioning of domestic architecture by private clients is by its very nature almost always the preserve of an essentially privileged few. In the current political and economic climate, it feels awkward to see the Stirling Prize celebrating such projects at its highest level.
Their inclusion also highlights the absence of new council housing of sufficient quality to be shortlisted. Despite signs of a modest resurgence, there is still nowhere near enough, and certainly not enough good-quality council housing being built.
Which leaves what must be the favourite, Witherford Watson Mann’s Appleby Blue Almshouse. This is a project that could hardly be more timely, as Britain faces a housing crisis and an ageing population.
Appleby Blue Almshouse shows how architecture for later life living can be socially connected and desirable. It is a model that could persuade older people to downsize without feeling that they are being consigned to dependence or decline.
The scheme has been universally praised and stands out as a thoughtful, humane and optimistic response to one of the most pressing issues of our time.
This year’s shortlist has some worthy entries, but overall it feels a little underpowered. Witherford Watson Mann’s project is the one scheme that really stands out as good architecture, addressing a critical need.
The winner of this year’s Stirling Prize will be announced on 16 October.
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