Stirling Prize shortlist: ‘Like trying to judge a particularly eclectic literary award’

Source:David Levene

Footbridge at Tintagel Castle – ‘the slim volume of poetry in the shortlist’

Catherine Slessor, president of the Twentieth Century Society and former editor of the Architectural Review

It has been said before, but the RIBA Stirling Prize is always like trying to judge a particularly eclectic literary award with a runaway diversity of genres. How do you compare a cookery book with a slim volume of poetry? Crime fiction with biography?

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RIBA Stirling Prize 2021 shortlist revealed

This year’s shortlist feels more net-cast-wider than usual, with a bridge up against a mosque and key worker housing competing with a jetty museum on Windermere. Perhaps it’s the Covid staycation effect, but the inclusion of schemes in Cornwall and the Lake District, two traditional English holiday locales, is striking.

Maybe it’s the RIBA’s unconscious sop to the Common Experience, given that most people have been unavoidably detained on these isles for the past year.

The Tintagel Castle footbridge – definitely the slim volume of poetry in the shortlist – is perhaps stretching it a bit as a piece of architecture, unless you count the castle to which it is attached. Carmody Groarke’s jetty museum, on the other hand, lurking darkly on the lakeside, could be an enigmatic Scandi Noir short story, featuring a tortured detective protagonist. Elsewhere, Grafton Architects’ muscular citadel for Kingston University is a hefty potboiler biography; and Stanton Williams’ key worker housing a competently executed sixth or seventh novel that knows its target market.

That leaves Marks Barfield’s Cambridge Central Mosque, its florid arboreal structure giving it the slightly overwrought feel of a vintage treasury of hand-painted botanical illustrations, while Amin Taha’s architectural cause célèbre in Clerkenwell Close comes wreathed in a such a tortuous back story of planning intrigue and subterfuge that it could be an espionage novel. Key questions: will Taha prevail and deliver a triumphant raspberry to Islington’s planning department? Can Grafton win yet another award? And, most fundamentally of all, can a bridge be a building?

Source:Hufton + Crow

Carmody Groarke’s Windermere Jetty Museum ‘stands out for its location’.

Shankari Raj, director of AJ 40 under 40 practice Nudge Group

It is good to see the Stirling Prize back – and with a mix of projects that shows the depth and breadth of what collaborative design and architecture can be. From a bridge to a mosque, the range is diverse.

But where is the ‘wow’ project that changes the culture of architecture? Or the project rolled out to meet social and environmental needs? Is it that these projects don’t come forward, or are they overlooked?

All the contenders are beautifully crafted, well-detailed and unique, and the RIBA has paid closer attention this year to meeting sustainability goals. Yet none of the projects overly excite me. Maybe it’s in part due to the saturation of imagery we are bombarded by on the internet or the sheer complexity of delivering projects from the contracts, through to the regulations and targets. We surely want to see the groundbreaking, change-making architecture that will shape a better future for us all. The RIBA Stirling Prize should represent the crème de la crème of architecture and stir up political will.

Getting anything built should be applauded and all these projects are worthy of note. I like Groupwork’s 15 Clerkenwell Close, even though it is their private residence. And Carmody Groarke’s project at Windermere, the Jetty Museum, stands out for its location, but it misses a trick with how it spatially engages with the landscape in plan.

While I think they all have some merit, I’m not sure I like any enough to nominate an outright winner. The winner needs to tick lots of boxes for me: from having a social and environmental backbone to impressing with its scale, massing, spatial configuration, materiality and detail.

If I had to pick just one? Frankly, I would struggle. Perhaps the bridge for English Heritage?

Source:Morley von Sternberg

‘The one I’d have swiped right on’ – Cambridge Central Mosque by Marks Barfield.

Claire Bennie, director, Municipal

Architecture, like marriage, is a social experiment, built on an equal mix of forethought and hope, and proving (or losing) its value over time. We give architecture a kind of  ‘Tinder treatment’ once a year with the RIBA Stirling Prize, swiping left and right on buildings based on hyperbole and flattering images.

The judges might ‘go on a date’ with the shortlist, but is that enough? We know why we do it: the RIBA Stirling Prize can make great telly, we like a celebration (architectural rewards are famously sparse) and, more meaningfully, it might inspire the public to expect more enriching buildings from the real estate world. But the public sometimes struggles with architects, because their buildings can deteriorate over time or, at worst, fail. Could and should the RIBA Stirling Prize be a vehicle to explore longer-term success, building more public trust? Each year, we could both celebrate the winner and revisit the shortlist from 25 years ago, interviewing users and neighbours and seeing how the buildings have evolved.

Stephen Hodder’s Centenary Building at Salford University won the inaugural Stirling prize of 1996 and now appears to be empty pending a major campus review. Revisits can be uncomfortable. They expose architects to charges of poor design and clients are sometimes found not to have looked after their buildings. Good post-occupancy evaluation is rare for those reasons, but informative.

The one I’d have swiped right on this year is probably the mosque, though I worry about the longevity of the detail-less façades. But let’s revisit the mosque in 2046 to see whether it still looks attractive and whether it has formed a meaningful relationship both with its users and the community.

Do you agree with our critics? Let us know your thoughts about this year's shortlist – leave a comment below.