LONDON – The five-year, £80m restoration of the Huge Ben tower in London has been nominated for the UK’s main structure award, alongside a brand new style school campus, a science laboratory and an “ingenious” dwelling extension.
The refurbishment of Huge Ben – formally generally known as the Elizabeth Tower – is among the many six nominees for the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Stirling Prize.
The listing additionally contains the London Faculty of Trend campus on the previous Olympic Park in east London and AstraZeneca’s medical analysis centre in Cambridge.
They’re joined by the “pioneering” Appleby Blue Almshouse retirement dwelling and the Japanese-inspired Niwa Home, each in south London, and an extension to an “eccentric” dwelling in Hastings.
The Elizabeth line – London’s east-west practice line – received the celebrated award final 12 months.
The prize is given to the constructing judged to be “essentially the most vital of the 12 months for the evolution of structure and the constructed surroundings”, and is judged on standards together with design imaginative and prescient, innovation and originality.
It’s normally given to a model new constructing, however may go to main restorations and renovations.
Different earlier winners of the prize – first introduced in 1996 – embody Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre, Hastings Pier and the Scottish Parliament constructing in Edinburgh.
The 2025 nominees:
Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects
Elizabeth Tower by Purcell
Hastings Home by Hugh Unusual Architects
London Faculty of Trend by Allies and Morrison
Niwa Home by Takero Shimazaki Architects
The Discovery Centre by Herzog and de Meuron/BDP
Riba president Chris Williamson mentioned the shortlsted tasks all “reveal structure’s distinctive capability to deal with a few of the most pressing challenges of our time, responding with creativity, adaptability and care”.
Every affords “a blueprint for the way structure can enrich society”, and so they present a “hopeful imaginative and prescient for the longer term, one the place structure strengthens communities and helps form a extra sustainable and inclusive constructed surroundings”, he added.
This social housing growth, with 57 flats for over-65s, in Southwark, south London, changed an deserted care dwelling, and is billed as a contemporary model of the normal almshouse.
The design is meant to “foster group and cut back isolation amongst residents”, Riba mentioned, with communal areas and shared amenities together with a kitchen and double-height backyard room. “The result’s a brand new commonplace for inclusive social housing in later life.”
The Elizabeth Tower is considered one of London’s best-known landmarks and is usually generally known as Huge Ben – though that is really the title of the bell that produces the well-known bongs.
Probably the most intensive works to the tower in its 160-year historical past included repairs to the clock mechanism; modifications to the color scheme on the 4 clock faces to place again the Victorian blue and gold; and reinstating St George’s Cross flag emblems. Accessibility enhancements embody a brand new carry.
The result’s described as “a veritable masterclass in conservation and craftsmanship” by the judges – though it got here at a price, going approach over its authentic price range, which was estimated at £29m to £45m.
This late nineteenth Century indifferent hillside home within the East Sussex city has been prolonged with a sequence of timber-framed rooms and industrial exterior options together with a concrete yard and galvanised metal staircase.
“The consequence goes past a home extension, reworking your complete dwelling and producing a lesson in restrained, ingenious reuse,” the judges mentioned.
The faculty beforehand had six buildings however the 6,000 college students and workers moved to the brand new 17-storey headquarters within the Queen Elizabeth Park in Stratford, east London, in 2023.
Judges approvingly famous options together with its “dramatic staircases unfurling by a shared ‘coronary heart area’ to encourage collaboration”.
This dwelling, described as a “pavilion-like oasis”, was constructed on a beforehand derelict plot behind a row of terraced homes in south London for a household with a love of Japanese design. It was additionally designed to be accessible for a wheelchair-using resident.
“The standard of sunshine all through the house is breathtaking,” the judges mentioned. “Giant full-height sliding doorways and full-height glazed partitions seamlessly mix indoors and out – opening areas to gardens, courtyards and balconies. It’s tough to see the place the constructing ends and the gardens start.”
Medication big AstraZeneca’s Discovery Centre “radically redefines the analysis facility”, based on Riba, “mixing cutting-edge laboratories with welcoming public areas”.
The placing constructing has a curved three-sided form, with a excessive, jagged exterior glass entrance and roof. Inside, three glass-lined labs are linked by “intelligent interconnecting corridors that stability stringent safety with transparency, placing science on show”. – BBC
