With this year’s diverse list, it’s been hard to predict the winner of the 2015 RIBA Stirling Prize. But the ballots were cast and the votes have been counted, and the winner is - drum roll! - the Burntwood School in Wandsworth, London by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.
The inspiring project impressed the judges - RIBA President Jane Duncan, architect Peter Clegg, architect and winner of the 2014 RIBA Stirling Prize Steve Tompkins, arts philanthropist Dame Theresa Sackler, and The Architects’ Journal editor Rory Olcayto.
The scheme involved transforming a 1950s secondary school campus and including six new faculty buildings and two large cultural buildings. These were linked to the complex’s original buildings by renowned 1950s/1960s architect Sir Leslie Martin.
The list of nominees was rich and hugely varied, spanning cultural spaces (The Whitworth in Manchester by MUMA); education buildings (the Burntwood School of course, and also the University of Greenwich Stockwell Street Building in London SE10 by Heneghan Peng architects); housing for all budgets (cue London’s Darbishire Place, Peabody housing by Niall McLaughlin Architects and NEO Bankside, by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners); and one of the latest Maggie’s Cancer Care centres, in Lanarkshire by Reiach and Hall Architects. The six buildings (and architecture practices) battled for the award since the shortlist was announced in July.
This is the landmark 20th year for the prestigious architecture award, which has been known to reward projects for their original designs, imagination and functionality - and this year has been no exception. ’It [the Burntwood School] demonstrates the full range of the skills that architects can offer to society,’ said the judges.
