Royal Institute of British Architects awards

Citation

(2000), "Royal Institute of British Architects awards", Facilities, Vol. 18 No. 1/2. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2000.06918aaf.003

Royal Institute of British Architects awards

Keywords Architecture, Awards

On the opening day of Architecture Week the RIBA announced the shortlist for architecture's premier award - The Stirling Prize. Once again the judges took a controversial decision to add a building which did not win a category award to the Stirling Prize shortlist - Benson & Forsyth's Museum of Scotland, a building that symbolises Scotland's new found confidence. That means eight buildings fought it out for the £20,000 Stirling Prize, sponsored for the first time by the RIBA Journal. The shortlist was:

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  Education Category Award: Ranelagh Multi-Denominational School, Dublin Ireland - O'Donnell & Tuomey.

  Commercial Category Award: Sto AG Marketing and Training Building, Stuhlingen, Germany - Michael Wilford & Partners.

  Arts & Leisure Category Award: NatWest Media Centre, Lord's Cricket Ground, London NW8 - Future Systems.

  The River and Rowing Museum: Mill Meadows, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon - David Chipperfield Architects.

  Conservation Category Award: Reichstag, The New German Parliament, Berlin, Germany - Foster and Partners.

  Civic and Community Category Award: North Greenwich Jubilee Line Underground Station - Alsop Lyall & Stormer with JLE Project Team. Strafford Regional Station - Chris Wilkinson Architects.

Also shortlisted:

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  The Museum of Scotland - Benson & Forsyth.

RIBA president Marco Goldschmied said:

The RIBA Awards recognise both excellence and innovation, and the Category Award Winners represent the best examples of their building type. Our standards are exacting which is why, in two categories, we decided in the end not to make awards this year. We did though call in the Museum of Scotland for consideration for the Stirling Prize, not least because it is a building of enormous cultural as well as historical importance. As for the rest, the list represents as good and as diverse a list as we have ever had; as Stirling Prize judges we are going to have a tough time choosing a winner. I'm very pleased that the RIBA Journal has come on board as main sponsor of the Stifling Prize. It's a wholly appropriate association and I hope it will be a lasting one. I am grateful too to the Arts Council of England for their continuing support of the Client of the Year. And on a personal note, I'm pleased that the Goldschmied Trust is again funding the Stephen Lawrence Prize, which not only rewards the best small project, but also helps to highlight the excellent work being done by the Stephen Lawrence Trust.

Once again buildings in Germany featured heavily on the list with Foster and Partners' Reichstag winning the Conservation prize, sponsored by The Crown Estate, and Michael Wilford and Partners' headquarters building for Sto winning the Commercial Award. Another overseas winner is the Ranelagh Multi-Denominational School in Dublin by O'Donnell & Tuomey, both of whom have had children at the school. The River and Rowing Museum finally won the recognition it deserves. Last year it won an RIBA Award but was not considered for a category as it was not then open. The boat-building theme was continued in the other winner of the Arts and Leisure Award, the NatWest Media Centre: Future Systems' extraordinary structure was built in a Cornish boatyard. The Civic and Community Award was shared by two of the stunning stations on the Jubilee Line Extension: Alsop Lyall and Stormer with JLE Project Team's spectacular blue North Greenwich Station which will serve the Dome and Stratford Regional Station by Chris Wilkinson, neatly solving the problem of the conjunction of three lines. Sadly the judges felt unable to make awards in the Health or Houses and Housing Categories.

The Stirling Prize, sponsored by the RIBA Journal, offers a £20,000 cash prize. It is the UK's richest and most prestigious architectural prize and is awarded annually to the architects of the building which has made the greatest contribution to UK architecture in the past year. Winners must be RIBA members and the building may be anywhere in the European Union. The prize is named after the architect Sir James Stirling 1926-1992. The Stirling Prize winner will be selected via an exhaustive judging process and will have been visited by three separate panels of judges, each of which will include one lay person. All entries are visited by a regional panel and the best 60 or so buildings receive RIBA Awards. These are chosen following a second round of judging by a different jury. These are then visited by a third panel which consisted this year of RIBA president Marco Goldschmied, chairman of the RIBA Awards Group Michael Manser, Amanda Baillieu Editor of the RIBA Journal, last year's runner up Rick Mather and fashion designer Stella McCartney.

All RIBA Award winners will also be considered for two £5,000 prizes. The Client of the Year Award takes the form of a commissioned work of art. The Award, sponsored by the Arts Council of England, recognises the importance of the role of the client in the creation of good buildings. The Stephen Lawrence Prize, sponsored by the Goldschmied Trust, is a cash prize given for a building costing under £500,000. The Award is named in honour of the black teenager who wanted to train as an architect.

The shortlist for the Stephen Lawrence Prize was:

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  Beefham House, Riverside School, Cumbria - Houlton Taylor Architects.Market Lane Public Conveniences - architecture plb.The Sculpture Gallery of Roche Court Wiltshire - Munkenbeck & MarshallSkywood House, private house, Denham - Graham Phillips.

The Stirling Prize ceremony, together with the presentation of the Category Awards, the Stephen Lawrence Prize and the Client of the Year Award, were made on the evening of Friday 19 November 1999, at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, with Sir David Steel presenting the prizes.

Visitors to a Web site dedicated to the awards had the opportunity to vote for the "People's choice" from 5 November 1999 on www.ribaawards.co.uk The result was announced at Kelvingrove on 19 November 1999. The RIBA Journal published a colour supplement featuring the shortlisted buildings, and Ellipsis are again publishing one of their guides to the Awards, Architecture 99, written by Tony Chapman and sponsored once again by service point.