Critics say the Stirling Prize ignores architecture beyond the South East, but as Eleanor Jolliffe points out, the shortlist reflects where the money is
There are many column inches dedicated to the Stirling Prize at this time of year. Wisdom, and the boredom threshold of the average architectural reader, would suggest that I should not add to them; especially as the practice I work for has been shortlisted (though not for a building I have worked on). However, I am not going to comment on the contenders as such, rather the coverage of the shortlist.
The criteria for winning the Stirling Prize are rarely noted. To be eligible for this year’s award the project director must be a current RIBA, RSAW, RIAS, or RSUA Chartered Member (or RIBA International Fellow). The project must be located in the UK, and have been completed between October 2021 and December 2023.
It must have been occupied by December 2023, and meet minimum sustainability criteria which include energy data, water usage and carbon calculations. This is the prize that is awarded to the building that has made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture.
A random beauty competition it is not.
The six shortlisted projects vary in typology and scale, budget and style. A £600,000 home extension is shortlisted alongside a 17-storey vertical university campus, the £1.1 billion headquarters of a global biopharmaceutical giant, a contemporary almshouse, a ‘blueprint for accessible housing’, and the conservation of perhaps the most recognisable piece of architecture in Britain.
The variety of scale, skill and budget is astounding. The breadth of British architectural talent on display, quite remarkable. The fact that these were all delivered in a struggling, post-Covid economy is a testament to the resilience, optimism and grit of the practices, collaborators, contractors and clients involved.
It is therefore a little disappointing that the vast majority of the coverage has decided that the most notable thing to comment on is their geographic spread. Almost every article showcasing the shortlist has chosen to ask if there is no good architecture north of the Fens.
While I would like to believe that groundbreaking architecture can be cheap, the reality is that really good buildings are very expensive
Apparently the capital-centric approach attracts annual criticism, though a cynic may ask if this is because the critique is always from the same quarters. The truth is that it is much easier to blame architecture competitions for choosing the wrong projects, than to ask why the vast majority of the investment in groundbreaking architecture is in the South East of the UK.
According to the ONS, in 2023 £1.8 billion of construction took place in the North East of England. In the same period £8.7 billion was spent in London. The contribution of architectural services to the economy from the North East in 2023 was £489 million, London’s contribution was £4.8 billion.
While I would like to believe that groundbreaking architecture can be cheap, the reality is that really good buildings are very expensive.
It is an uncomfortable truth. Really good buildings cost a lot of money, but also time and effort; emotional resilience, the belief and buy-in of a good client, thousands of hours of thought, planning and coordination, tonnes of carbon and materials, and hundreds and hundreds of hours of hard physical labour.
Really good buildings require significant financial, emotional, physical and environmental investment. If this investment is easier to come by in the South East, that probably says more about the distribution of investment in the UK economy than about the tastes of architectural juries.
As promised, I will not comment on the actual architecture, but I would like to note something about each of the shortlisted projects I find more interesting than their geographical location:
Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects has crafted its spaces with the integration of the elderly residents into the wider community in mind. The architecture is designed to make whatever contribution mere bricks and mortar can to decreasing the isolation of the elderly.
The careful and crafted conservation work on Elizabeth Tower by Purcell used craftspeople from across the UK, with only the hand-blown glass for the clock faces sourced from overseas. For a project to invest not just in a building, but in a pipeline of construction skills is worth celebrating.
Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects showcases love and time lavished on a home, navigating complex topography with fine details and concrete repairs while celebrating and conserving the original house. A ‘poetic’ and inventive navigation of reuse and of new architecture meeting old.
London College of Fashion by Allies and Morrison brings together six disparate sites into one. The constrained footprint on the former Olympic Park necessitated a vertical campus. It has not only encompassed the previous disparate functions of the college, but allowed it to broaden the scope of what it teaches. Plus those staircases…
Niwa House by Takero Shimazaki Architects is an elegant wheelchair-accessible home that does not institutionalise or medicalise the reality of life in a wheelchair. Skimming the photos, the dignity this gives to the resident is evident; anyone who has ever grappled with the banality of the Part M diagrams can appreciate the skill in this.
The Discovery Centre (DISC) by Herzog and de Meuron / BDP navigated the client’s understandable preoccupation with the Covid pandemic to deliver a modern scientific campus that nods towards the architecture of Cambridge and utilises Europe’s largest remote ground source heat pump.
You can note that they are all close to London, but why would you? To reduce the talent and thoughtfulness on display here to simply the location of their client’s site is almost insulting.
Do I wish that our economy was more balanced and that more clients were willing to invest time, money and effort outside of the South East? Of course I do.
Do I think this is the fault of the architects or the RIBA juries? No. Architecture is not a patronless art.
>> Also read: More striking for what is missing: the Stirling shortlist 2025
>> Also read: This Stirling Prize is a riposte to the chorus of British declinism
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