The RIBA's Best Buildings of 2011 Special The Culture Show

Hello and welcome to this the Culture Show Special. We're at the

awards ceremony hosted by the Royal Institute of British Architects to

celebrate the design genius behind the best building of 2011.

This is a chance to pause and drink of the fountain of design

inspiration, to glimpse the building that reflect and shape the

mood of our times. We're coming to you this evening from the Magna

Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham. Ten years ago it won the

RIBA's most important award, the Stirling Prize. Tonight, as we gear

up for the big announcement of this year's Stirling Prize winner, we'll

be exploring some of the most interesting buildings completed

this year across the globe. So, if you love great design, sit tight

for the next hour and you'll find out everything you need to know

out everything you need to know about architecture right now.

Coming up tonight: I look back on a few of the big ideas which have

shaped the year in architecture. Architect Fran Balaam explores the

six buildings short-listed for the Stephen Lawrence Prize, the first

of three awards to be announced this evening.

The prize rewards fresh architectural talent and is for

projects with a budget of under �1 million.

Critic Tom Dyckhoff takes a look at the buildings in the running for

the Lubetkin Prize, which is awarded to international projects

outside Europe. And he shows us round the six

buildings nominated for tonight's most prestigious award, the �20,000

RIBA Stirling Prize for Building of the Year.

It's a very strong line-up for this year's Stirling Prize but also for

the Lubetkin and Stephen Lawrence Prizes which we'll be coming to

shortly. But before we start to fine out who's won what, I'd like

to take a light skim across the muddy waters and swirling eddies of

the architectural tide of the last year and have a quick look at some

of the big ideas that appear to have floated to the surface.

This last year in architecture has provided us perhaps with more than

ever before with a gloriously mixed diversity of building species. They

may appear wildly different, but in true Darwinian terms, they all

descend from the great modernist architecture that burst on to the

planet after the First World War. It's a year that's given us dramy

in dazzling gravity-defying triumphs of engineer at the Olympic

Park. It's a year that's given us monumental scale and shiny surfaces

in projects like Jean Nouvel's One New Change, that opened back in May

on one side of Thames, while Richard Branson crystalline Shard

has been racing sky wards on the other. But it's also a year in

which buildings with a softer, evolved and more adaptable

aesthetic have emerged all across the UK.

I like adaptability. It's healthy. I also think it captures the spirit

of architecture in 2011. In evolutionary terms, the idea is no

better expressed than in this building which is a bird-hide in

Rainham Marshes in Essex, by the architects Haysom Ward Miller. It

opened last November, it was prefabricated off-site and put

together in just two days in order to minimise its impact on the

nature reserve here. It is eco- friendly, it's small and it's quiet,

but, I think it encapsulates three big ideas that we've seen a lot of

in the past year in building. So, how's this for a big idea?

Anti-gravity design. The idea that a building weighing dozens or

hundreds or even thousands of tonnes can appear to float or drift

off into the ether as though weightless. Here, for example,

they've hidden these steel supporting brackets underneath the

building to make it look as though it's hovering above the marshes.

The fact that it's canted and skewed to one side and yet doesn't

fall in to the reed bed, well, that completes the illusion of zero

gravity, makes it compelling and for that matter, it's catching, too.

This year there's the jaunty City of Westminster College Paddington

Green campus by Schmitt Hammer Lassen. Which opened in January and

from the Stirling short list the super light weight Olympic

Velodrome by Hopkins Architects completed in February.

You see, these are buildings which are define by their engineering as

as much as by their architecture, buildings which require complex

calculations just to stop them from falling over. And they would not be

possible without the computer. It's computer power, computer-aided

design, software, which has liberated architecture from gravity.

There is another big idea that sort of runs counter to the complexities

of the anti-gravity principle, and this idea's got everything to do

with simple geometric shapes. So, for example, if the building I'm in

now were shrunk right now you could easily imagine a small child

picking it up and playing with it. This idea of simple, block-like

structures runs through so much in building design right now. However,

there is one shape that architects are particularly fond of, and it's

this one. In October of last year, a mixed

use development by MAKE, architects, opened in Birmingham, called The

Cube. It was swiftly followed in November by The Corby Cube, a new

theatre library council building in Northamptonshire by Hawkins Brown.

In May David Chipperfield's Hepworth Wakefield opened with its

series of cubic galleries. These simple shapes, somewhat repetitive,

in each case do however unfold in complex ways with beautiful

detailing. I mean, where are the guters and drainpipes? Every one of

these buildings represents, of course, another great feat of

engineering, owing just as much to the power of the computer as it

does to the pencil. There's a third last, and very

welcome big idea in my view, simply put, wot? No bling? More than ever

over the past year we've seen a shift away from our fascination for

shiny, sparkly, colourful bangle buildings towards an architecture

which expresses a relationship with the natural world, something that

is perhaps healthier and certainly far more engaging. From the new

Woodland Trust headquarters in Grantham by Feilden Clegg Bradley

to a little wooden Love Shack in the lick traibgt by Sutherland

Hussey, great sustainable buildings finished with natural materials

have been completed this year all over the UK. Two of my favourites

are on the shirt list for year's Stephen Lawrence Prize, Ty Hedfan a

private house in the Welsh countryside finished last August by

architects het het and Brown's Dental Practice in Ivybridge in

Devon -- Ty Hedfan. By David Sheppard completed last November.

Maybe, just maybe, we're entering a visually quieter period as with he

get more confident about what we're saying. And looking back over the

past year, but also over the past dbg aid, I do think that the --

decade, I do think that the way we engineer our buildings, we insulate

and glaze them, the way we put them together has finally caught up with

itself with the modernist principles that underscore it,

principles which first kicked off in the 1920s.

Ideas like gravity-defying architecture, simple geometric

shapes and truthfulness in materials were all there in the

first years of Modernism, but those early 20th century buildings were

often cold, poorly insulated and suffered from condenisation. Today,

we can, thanks to clever construction technology, make those

ideas work. And if Modernism has come of age technologically, it's

also evolved socially and styleisticly into a glorious

variety of species and forms, thanks to engineering, to computer-

aided design, to the willingness of architects to experiment and

hybridise it. You know, we can now design shapes and buildings that

just 20 years ago were thought unthinkable or too expensive. We

now have the confidence to cloak those buildings in a variety of

materials that can respond to their context. I think architecture is

entering a new and highly evolved age, one where the character of

buildings seems more rooted in place and more rooted in our memory

as well. You know, Modernism has been around since before you or I

were born. But it is an animal which is only just now finally

grown up. It's stopped being gaubgy and spoty and it's started to try

on lots of new clothes. -- gawky.

Well, time now to see the extent to which some of those ideas are

making their presence felt in the buildings short-listed for the

RIBA's prizes tonight. We kick off the awards handout this evening

with the Stephen Lawrence Prize. It was set up to honour the memory of

Stephen Lawrence, the London teenager who was planning to become

an architect before he was brutally stabbed to death in 1993. There are

six buildings on the short list for this prize. Here's architect Fran

Balaam to tell us about them. Now in its 14th year, the Stephen

Lawrence Prize is awarded to skpwroebgts with a budget under a

million pounds. This year's short list includes three homes, a bird-

hide, a dentist's surgery, and a school. Doreen Lawrence, Stephen's

mother is on the prize's judging panel. What do you think Stephen

would have thought about the prize? I think Stephen would love it. He

was an extrovert and I think the fact that he from such a young age

wanted to be an architect, I think the fact that the prize, one of the

prizes is in his name, I think, first of all he'd probably feel a

bit shy about it but at the same time I think he'd really appreciate

and look at all the talents that have come through and all the young

architects that's always trying to achieve as good a building a

possible. I think Stephen would love that.

This is St Patrick's school in Kentish Town in North London. It's

been nominated for a new music room and library by Coffey Architects.

This space feels very intimate and intricate. It's been designed so

that everything has a place, all slotting in within the birch ply

panelling. What's nice about this project is that it's not just a box.

The screen with the green perspex, the depth of the shelving, the

overhang of the mezzanine all gives the room a sort of sheltered,

cocoon-like feeling. It's good for people who like to

play music and read books and do drama, because we do all those

stuff in here. It's a nice place made of wood and wood makes you

feel comfy. The first of three houses on this

year's short list is Ty Hedfan in Brecon in Wales. It's own and

designed by architects Sarah Featherstone and Jeremy Young.

initial idea was to design a family home for us, but this is quite a

costly exercise and we quite quickly realised we needed to build

as much flexibility into the house design as possible in the event we

might need to let it out. We wanted to use local materials. So we've

ended up with these two large screen walls almost in the local

Pennant, South Wales stone. The rest of the building we conceived

as a slate-clad box. It's worked very well and has a sort of press

teen, precise quality to it, which is nice.

The woerdz Ty Hedfan mean hovering house in Welsh. Building

regulations meant constructing within six metres of the river was

impossible, so the couple came up with the ingenious solution of a

cantilevered wing. You really do get a sense of the changing seasons

when you're sitting in the main living room. Because you're over

the river and amongst the trees you get the amazing shadows of the

trees -- leaves dancing across the floor and walls.

A feeling of being rooted in the landscape is also fundamental at

two of the other buildings on the short list.

One of these is the RSPB's Marshland Discovery Zone in

Purfleet Essex designed by Peter Beard Landroom land. This could be

considered quite a tough site to build on. It's not a classically

beautiful landscape, it's dramatic, industrial, there are pylons

marching across it. What I really like about this design is the way

it responds to this setting. It's old shipping containers set out to

form three different buildings. A conventional bird-hide is usually

a cold, dark box with a narrow viewing slot. But here there's a

classroom, a composting toilet and an elegant observation shelter. The

most striking thing about this space is the view, with this vast

opening you feel like you're almost touching the marsh. A strong

connection with the environment is also key at the White House on the

Isleof Coll in the Hebrides built by WT Architecture around an 18th

century ruin. We'd been living in London for

seven years or so. I wanted to come back to Coll to take over my

father's farm. We wanted to build a house near the farm. We had no

house to live in. We walked round the bay here, looking for someone

to build the house and kept coming back to the ruin. We always wanted

to do something that incorporated the ruin but made it into a family

home. It was a great opportunity to do something interesting with a

house that was a bit of an island landmark as well.

One of the deliberate design features of the house is to try and

bring the great outdoors inside so you have the expanse of patio going

from inside to outside and you really have a sense as you're

sitting, particularly in the sitting room, you have a sense of

being part of the landscape. Brown's Dental Practice in

Ivybridge in Devon is by David Sheppard Architects. Everything

about the building is designed to make the surgery feel as

unfrightening as possible. We wanted a more calming influence

for the patients when they came into practice, we wanted to steer

away from the sort of cold, clinical hard surfaces you get in a

lot of practices and more the sort of warmth and the wood that we have

here today. The light that flows into the room is really very

different to anything I've experienced in a surgery or a

dental practice and I think you only need to look up through the

trees and the drill really doesn't seem relevant; or not so bad

anyway! Now with our new building we're not in such a rush to get

home at the end of the day, you feel quite relaxed, even being at

work is lovely. We're not a stuffy surgery and the building shows you

that. That's exactly with a we are. The final project on the Stephen

Lawrence Prize short list is in Hoxne tonne, East London. A

Georgian house has had its bottom two floors remodelled by David

Mikhail Architects. Inside it's hard to believe that

this is a Georgian house. And what they've essentially done here is

rework the guts of the building to recreate a far greater feeling of

space. What's interesting about this project is that it's only been

extended by one metre. Everything else has just been re-organised. It

gives the house a sort of very calm, ordered feeling. What I really like

about it is this overlapping and sort of layering of different

levels and spaces. It brings a kind of complexity to what at first

appears a quite simple project. So, there you have it, six very

different designs, which of them will win this year's Stephen

Lawrence Prize? What a delightful set of projects.

Almost all of those projects cost substantially less than the �1

million set by this award, proving you don't have to spend a fortune

to end up with an inspiring building. It's my great pleasure to

hand over to Doreen Lawrence and architect Marco Goldschmied whose

charitable foundation funds this award, so they can reveal the

winner. I should say in addition to giving

the architect an award, the foundation does give an annual

bursary to the Stephen Lawrence scholarship for architecture

students. I'm now going to announce the winner of this year's Stephen

Lawrence award which is St Patrick's school, Coffey Architects.

This was a wonderful opportunity opportunity for Phil Coffey, the

young architect who has won this award. He's been in practice just

six years. Although he's no stranger to awards because he's

worked for Ian Ritchie architects who have been twice nominated for

the Stirling. Wow! I'd just say thank you to the

RIBA, to Marco, do Doreen and Philip. It was a great day when

they came to judge the building and thanks to the design team and the

guys who work very hard in the office but also importantly to the

diocese of Westminster who were a fantastic client for us. Some of

the things said about architecture in education this year they were

fantastic because they believed architecture really does make a

difference to those people who go to school, enjoy great spaces and

learn in those spaces and it's better for their outcome. For us

it's reward enough to go in see these kids, playing their music,

reading books and performing theatre. But really, this is like

the icing on the cake. Thanks very much, cheers.

Well, many congratulations to Phil, our first prize-winning architect

of the night. The next award sees us move from the small scale to

some of the biggest budget buildings of the year. It's the

RIBA Lubetkin Prize given to international projects outside the

EU here's Tom Dyckhoff with news of the five buildings on the short

list. This famous penguin pool here at

London Zoo is by one of the most radical architects of the 20th

century, Berthold Lubetkin. Originally from Russia, avenues

pioneer of modernist design and it's after him that the RIBA's

international award for architecture is named.

The buildings nominated for this year's Lubetkin Prize are all laugh

irpb big-budget affairs, each costing more than �100 million. Let

me tell you a bit about them. Million dollars.

The first two buildings on the short list share a common theme,

sustainability in a very hot climate. Norman Foster, who's been

nominated twice for this year's award is the architect behind the

futuristic Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi.

It may look a bit like something from a science fiction film,

complete with driverless cars, but it's actually a university for

studying renewable energy. It's part of a grand plan to build a

carbon neutral city over the next 15 years. Everything has been

designed to minimise energy use. The same is true of the second big

sustainable building on the short list. It's called The Met, a 66-

storey residential tower block in Bangkok by architectural practice

WOHA based in Singapore. The architects have designed the very

opposite of a standard sealed skyscraper. This is designed as a

self-cooling building so you can opt whether you want to turn on the

air-conditioning or not. Remarkably for such a tall building all the

apartments have balconies and gardens. It's the kind of place

where you can open the window, enjoy a view and go for a swim,

even on the top floor. Next two buildings up for the Lubetkin Prize

are both renovations of fine art maou Simms in -- museums in America.

The first, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond is by Rick

Mather, the architect who so successfully revamped the ashmolean

in Oxford last year. He's doubled the space of the museum, put in a

new main atrium and reordered the space to make sense of the museum's

eclectic art collection. In Massachusetts Norman Foster has

also come up with a plan that gives you life to an old building. His

scheme for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts stays true to the plans

of the original architect, but adds a new glass courtyard that's

revolutionised how visitors move around the galleries. The last

building in the running for the prize is a new Opera House in

Guangzhou China, by Zaha za. It has curved Foyers wrapped around

the main auditorium, an acoustic second to none.

It shows vision on an theatrical scale and has already been called

the most spectacular Opera House in the world.

So, for this prize showcasing the best in international architecture,

you have the quiet elegance of the museums in Virginia and Boston. You

have sustainable visions of the future in Masdar and The Met and

the wild exuberance of Zaha's Opera House. What an incredible range!

I'm sure Lubetkin would have approved.

Well, I'm pleased to hand over to the new President of the RIBA and

chair of the Lubetkin Prize judges, Angela Brady, whoel announce which

of those spectacular buildings has won. The winner of the 2011 RIBA

Lubetkin Prize is... The Met by WOHA.

The reason it's such an interesting building is that it's in a city

full of skyscrapers with grass, curtain waulg and they're consuming

huge amounts of energy, what The Met says is do I have to live in a

flat and always use air- conditioning. You all have a

wonderful balcony that you can go out on to. You can swim in a

swimming pool, your own private swimming pool at that level, which

is extraordinary. It's almost like a kind of super natural experience,

to be in touch with nature and yet be up in the clouds.

In terms of architecture nobody has ever done that before. Nobody has

offered occupants the choice to open their window quite so high up

in a tropical climate. It's really a completely new type of building.

We're very honoured to receive this award. I think the category of high

rise, high-density, speculative development housing is not often

represented in awards and so we're particularly pleased to have it

recognised tonight. We think in the developing world this form of

housing is going to be one of the major areas of construction in the

coming century. We think there's a although of opportunity to rethink

and revise the model and so we're, we think it's very exciting to have

it recognised tonight. Thank you. Great news there for WOHA

architects, the winners of this year's Lubetkin Prize. Many

congratulations. So, now we come to the main event, the RIBA - steady

on! The RIBA Stirling Prize for Building of the Year. Here's' Tom

Dyckhoff again, with a look at the first three contend for this year's

prize. This year's Stirling Prize short

list has a rich mixture of buildings. Including the RSC's

revamped theatre in Stratford-upon- Avon. A cultural centre in Northern

Ireland and this school by last year's winner and Lubetkin nominee

Zaha. It's the Evelyn grace academy in Brixton, South London. The

school wanted a proper grown-up building, something that treats its

pupils like members of society, not just as kids. So there are no crazy,

or whacky colours here. Zaha treats the children like adults, with a

kind of complex overall majority trees and design you might find on

an iconic art gallery or a skyscraper.

The first time that I saw this building I was like, wow! It's

really differently yet different in a good way.

What I think Zaha is a genius to come up with a building like this

because normally other secondary school are square, dull, everything

is fitted into one small building. But in this year she used the space

very well and I think that was very clever.

Evelyn Grace is an academy, one of the schools created independently

of local government to educate kids in areas of low academic ambition.

All academies have specialisms, one of he have grin Grace's is sport.

There can't be many schools that have a bright red running track

through the middle but sport is essential to the school's identity,

you can read it in the architecture, the go-faster strikes and angled

columns, the building looks like it's on the starting blocks, poised

to pounce. Evelyn grace is arranged around its

running track. It divides the building in half.

It buildings, in fact, divided into two distinct schools. You can see

from the model here. We've got the Evelyn hao over here, the Grace bit

over here and they're divided into upper schools on the top deck and

middle schools on the middle deck, all bound together in this central

block and the whole thing is united in this dramatic Z, shape, Z for

Zaha? The idea of smaller schools is key

to this academy's philosophy. It's meant to create the same intimate

feeling of a primary school, even though at maximum capacity it can

take 1100 pupils. One of architecture's greatest ambitions

is to create a better society. Could Evelyn Grace help do that

here, in an area with a history of some of the highest rates of

violent crime in the UK? People see Brixton as something

more positive now, it's somewhere you send your children to go to

school every day. It's not like any other building, so it's not common,

it makes it feel a bit special. was really impressed that they

spent all this money on just a building. I was like, yeah, thanks,

that's great. I get to go to a nice new school. Your school is one of

the most influential bits of architecture you'll ever experience.

The debate will rumble on for years about how best to build them, but

if one proves anything it's that ambitious design inspire pupils at

a very critical part of their lives. Depending on your politics, the

second building on the short list is in Londonderry, or Derry in

Northern Ireland, a city with a history of tension between

unionists and republicans. The city has seen some of the most

violent outbursts of the Troubles, but it's a chapter are that

building could help draw to a close. This is An Gaeleras Irish language

cultural centre by architects O'Donnell and Tuomey.

In the past, speaking Gaelic was discouraged by the authorities.

Here it's now actively celebrated. The centre has language classrooms,

a book shop, offices, and spaces that celebrate Irish culture and

tradition. Before this centre I find that a

lot of the Irish cultural activities would have been

scattered around different buildings and locations. So, this

centre is sort of like the linchpin, if you like, of culture. To me it

really modernises everything to do with the Irish language. Generally

people think of Irish, they think of old things, whereas this brings

it into the 21st century. I think it's a welcoming building. Nobody

would come in here and feel threatened or feel they shouldn't

be here. This is an overtly warm and open

building. From the wide entrance, to the cosy cafe, right through to

the very architecture. Instead of the usual partisan symbolism thaefg

for an abstract modernism but still very warm. This is a building with

its arms open wide to the whole community. The centre is just 15

metres wide and 50 metres deep, but everything fits in like a 3D

Chinese puzzle. It might be a small building, but its architects,

O'Donnell and Tuomey, have packed it full of incredible complexity.

It's full of zig-zagging angles, walkways and passage ways that give

the whole building a real energy The architects have used concrete

to great skull taourl effect here, but skull taourl effect here, but

have broken it up with these bright colours. The sky lights let lots of

natural light in so the concrete doesn't feel dark and oppressive.

The biggest space in the centre is this theatre for professional or

amateur performances. Apologies in advance for the embarrassing

English person. Tom, I'm going to teach you the

second step, it's very simple. One, two.

Perfect, two ways, Peter, beautifully...$$NEWLINE

History is still very present on the streets of Derry, but the whole

city is completely transformed from the place I first came to 20 years

ago. Derry becomes a UK's City of Culture in 2013. If any place

symbolises just how culture can heal a rift by stitching together

the past and the present, it's a place like this.

Next up is the RSC's rezaoepbd theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon by

benefit et cetera associates. What's impressive about this design

is that it had to work within the context of its famous list ed

building. The before the revamp the most well known view of the theatre

was from across the River Avon but the architects have re-or

orientated the site and have added a landmark bell tower a nod to

Shakespeare's many Italian references. One of the biggest

changes is that the theatre finally has grand entrance that it really

deserves. At least now you know where to go in.

What benefit et cetera Associates have done is to use the original

shell and then completely reinvent its interior.

This wall has been left as a reminder of where the old theatre

auditorium ended. The old theatre may have been beautiful but it was

a bit of an enclosed box. What the redesign has done though, is to

create these great big new walkways that invite the town into the

theatre. It means you can come here for reasons other than to go and

see a play. You can come and buy your Shakespeare mug or have a cup

of tea. Anyone can have a bit of a Shakespeare experience.

As used expect, the redesign has meant that the backstage facilities

have also been changed. Not everyone has a balcony in their

dressingroom, that's quite a luxury. Not every theatre has the River

Avon running outside. Obviously it has such resonance for us here.

must be so important to have a breathing space when you come off

stage. If it's a difficult emotional journey you're going on

it's incredible to step out and look on to nature, let some of that

emotion go. Where possible, the architects have

used parts of the old building, like these floor boards, which were

taken from the original stage. The layers of the old building are also

on view, a reminder of the theatre's illustrious history.

All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players.

It's the east and Juliet is the sun. Whether it is nobleer in the mind

to suffer the shripbgs and arrows of our greatest fortune... Inside

the main theatre they've completely changed the stage, gone is the

Proscenium arch I remember from a school trip. The most dramatic

change is in the heart of the theatre, they've completely

demolished the old auditorium. Its design was based on that of a 1930s

cinema so all the action was over there. I remember coming as a

teenager to see King Lear and the actors may have been in Birmingham

they were that far away. Instead they've created this intimate new

auditorium so that wherever you're sitting you're never more than 15

metres away from the action. And they've also created this new

thrust stage which literally thrust the action out into the audience.

You really feel part of the action and from part of the stage is so

close. You can almost touch the actors. You can really see the

facial expressions from different parts of the theatre. As soon as

you walk in through the building there's a real buzz. There's a

lovely acoustic to the building so people in the restaurants can

chatter comes down to the Foyer space. And especially this tower, I

think is really good cos people can go up and then see the whole town.

Those are the first three buildings on the Stirling Prize short list

for 2011. I have come to join this table briefly to mull on their

merits with Angela Brady from the RIBA and structural engineer You

described the judging as a process of trying to sort out the

difference between apples and spoons. How do you find a level

platform from which to assess a platform. It's difficult, you need

all, you need apple and spoon and comparing all. What is very

interesting was as soon as you step back and you apply what restraint

and tolerance these architects have given with the new economical and

ecological constraints they're facing, all of them for me, I have

to measure will the level of excitement I'm left with.

enjoyed it? It's difficult to judge, but I had to separate the heart

from my mind and apply my rules but find the excitement in each one. If

you took the project in Ireland, for instance, I felt very much,

very difficult, when we first arrived when you got inside it, it

felt like a calf earn, almost like a flower opening up to you, you

don't see anything from the outside. The school, a smooth, very smooth

line in a very compact site to fit so much on to one site, again,

ecology, economic, technology but a beautiful thing that is delightful.

If you go to the theatre, it required the architect, I think, to

be a watchmaker. It was ingenious intervention, almost acupuncture

around the building. Unpicking and remaking? Unpicking and remaking,

making the patient live longer. Angela across the six projects this

year, they're all very strong but they also bring back, agendas,

whether it's the repairing of scarred areas, or whether it's

sustainability or whether it's education. I wonder whether or not

the Stirling is becoming almost more politicised and the judging

process becoming more politicised? Well, they say that architecture is

shaped by politics and to a certain way it is. I think what's special

and unique about these first three projects we've looked at is that

they engage the public in different ways. I think even to get those

projects off the ground in their day was a good thing and I hope

that there are still going to be these quality buildings in the

future. But it's very much about, I think it's very much about who is

pushing these projects? Who is backing them. If you look at An

Gaeleras, a wonderful, a wonderful little building on a very tight

site and you're drawn into that building, once you get in it's a

bit like a TARDIS, it opens up and there's colour and light. It's a

real people building. If you look at the school, again, it's a youth

building, and when you see it first, you can see the sport is a very big

thing, it's a sports and mathematics building. To see that

building in South London in Brixton I think is a wonderful statement to

see that building right there, so exciting, so different. Then, when

we look at, in Stratford-upon-Avon, when we look at the Shakespeare

yaoeurbgs she ter, the clever, replanning of that building, again

a people drawing, but all different people vaoeultd to different types

of building. That's a fascinating point. Thank you both for your

views. Let's take a look at the last three projects in the running

for tonight's Stirling Prize. Tom again.

The remaining three buildings on the Stirling short lest, are a

museum in Germany, an office block in London and one of the star

attractions of the new Olympic Park in East London, the Velodrome by

Hopkins Architects. It's one of the few buildings on

the site which will retain its original function and remain a

cycle track after the 2012 Olympics are over.

This building is a brilliant fusion of that old architectural pairing,

form and function. The architects have engineered just what you want

from a top-class sport sporting venue starting with this 250 metre

track but then upped the ante to create something truly beautiful.

This feels like a building that was made by people who really care

about cycling. One of the advisors was Olympic gold medal winner, Sir

Chris Hoy. He helped get the placing of the seating just right,

so the cyclists would be able to enjoy the crowds' cheers of

encouragement as they take lap. They've done two really clever

things with the seating here. First of all they've hunkered down close

as possible to the action. Secondly, they have put most of it alongside

in two tiers, so you can get that all-important view of the finish

line. The roof's made a little bit like a

tennis racket with these pairs of cables strung across and Delors

Kately balanced on top of those you have these very light wooden roof

panels, some of them with built-in roof lights so you minimise the

need for artificial light and cut down on energy use. There's some

clever invisible stuff going on here today. Temperatures is another

important considerations. Track cyclists prefer warm thin air, but

6,000 spectators don't really want to sit here sweating away as

Britain goes for gold. So, the engineers have put vents in beneath

the seats. They suck in cool air from outside. The track's overall

majority tree and air conditions should make it the fastest

velodrome in the world. A lot of indoor cycle tracks are

very industrial sheds almost, whereas with this, light coming

through windows at both ends, seating either side, I just think

it's a really nice building inside. I just love the smooth ness and the

track is so fast around. It's the fastest track I've ridden on.

able to ride in this track, I feel priflepbld and happy. It's great,

because famous cyclists it's going to host the Olympics and they're

going to be on the track I rode on so it's really good.

The Velodrome is UN priplprofbl, mog could be added to it, nothing -

- unimproveable; it's economic, sustainable, ambitious, I think

this building will leave its mark on the country long after the

Olympic Games have been and gone. The next building up for prize is

the Angel in Islington, by architects Alford Hall Monaghan

Morris. Now on first sight this isn't the flashiest building on the

list but it's definitely not os taepbtairbs, but this is sort of

building is one which has the biggest impact on our working lives.

It's an office. I don't feel like I'm walking into an office, more

like I'm checking into a swish hotel. Lots of office spaces can

feel quite cold and soulless but this is definitely feels a lot more

inviting and actually rather elegant. What's really innovative

about the Angel is that it has re- used the concrete frame of the

building that used to stand on the site. A 1980s office block. This is

the plan of the old building. It's got weird bits like this cut off

corners and this central garden that nobody could ever find they're

way to. So what the architects did was to strip it back and unites the

existing skeleton. They extended the out the front here like that,

and at the side like that and where the garden was they created this

lovely aid rum and it extended the office space so there's more a win-

win situation. The phraor space has been increased by nearly a third

but that is note all that's clever about this redesign. Among this

building's hidden qualities is how the architect treats the exterior

wall. In an ordinary office block the developer likes a 1.5 metre

grade, it's about about there. -- grid. It allows them greater

flexibility in how they carve up the space. Here the architects have

challenged that and stretched the windows to three metres, getting

rid of the bars and allowing light to flood in. It doesn't sound much

but makes all the difference to the ordinary office worker.

What's great about this is that nearly everybody has a view of the

outside space. Everybody has light, it's really cool.

I think it really makes you look forward to coming to work knowing

you're working somewhere really exciting, really well designed. I

think often offices, not much thought goes into how they're out

for example. One of my favourite bits is the roof terrace which is

absolutely fantastic. It's so open, it has amazing views across the

whole of London. We're really will you cany to have that space.

The Angel is environmentally friendly, by reusing the original

structure of the building, 13 years' worth of energy of heating,

cooling, and lighting have been saved.

What this building proves is that you don't have to build something

from scratch to create something truly great. In fact, adapting and

reusing what's already there makes environmental, economic and

architectural sense. We're going to be seeing a lot more buildings like

this in the future, let's hope they're all as good.

The final building on the Stirling short list is the Museum Folkwang

in Germany by David Chipperfield Architects.

Set against the tough urban backdrop its cool al basser-like

walls are made of crushed recycled glass.

They subtly change colour throughout the day. It gives the

whole building a very strokable feel.

Folk folk loosely translates as people's hall. The museum was

created by a cultural philanthropist whose vision was to

place modern art at the centre of urban life. So, the challenge for

David Chipperfield was to stay true in his design to the museum's

founding principles. Chipperfield's design is a response

to the museum's original listed 1950s building over there. But he

hasn't slaveishly copied it, but used it as a starting point to

create a very David Chipperfield building, cool and restrained and

calm. In fact, it's so calm, some have likened it to a meditation

centre. All through the building there are

these incredible reflections and views through to the outside, it's

Chipperfield playing with your perception of space. He ruses

architecture to its bare essentials, solid and void, light and dark,

inside and out, and plays around with them. It means the whole

gallery is a real pleasure for the eye.

Daylight is often seen as the natural enemy of paintings, so it's

unusual to see so many sky lights in these galleries.

You can see how these natural light here in this room. Throughout the

whole museum the galleries have these translucent ceiling panels,

they have pulled them down here so we can look beneath them. They

filter the direct natural light that come in through those windows,

they're facing north, to grab that all-important north light which

artists like so much, with an even tempo, it means the whole museum --

museum isn't dark and enclosed, instead, it's light and open.

All the room are -- rooms are very important. Because of the glass the

sun comes in. You can focus on pictures because there's no other

things around it. You have this very, very nice play

of architecture and nature inside this building. It just makes you

feel comfortable. It's not like being shut away from the world.

You can look outside, you are always in contact with people

passing by the museum and you always feel like you're somehow in

the middle of the city. All the passage ways and court

yards give the whole place a very monastic air, it's very peaceful

and contepl playtive, although here it's not God you are contemplating,

it's the art. Since the gaougen highly arrived in

Bilbao, building a museum or art gallery has been seen as a way of

building new life into a place. Here, though, the new design has

service simply reintroduced itself to the city. Chipperfield has once

more turned the folk folk into the people's hall.

The last three very beautiful buildings of the six Stirling

projects short-listed. I'm joined by the landscape designer Dan

Pearson, one of the judges this year and the architect Deborah

Saunt who helped judge the Lubetkin Prize. You also, incidentally

chaired the awards committee. You oversaw everything here. Dan, how

easy was it for you to bring your tools and your approaches as a

gardener and landscape designer to looking at buildings? I think for

me it was absolutely fascinating, the process of engaging with the

architects more closely. We work with architects as landscape

designers all the time. But the chance to really sit down and mull

through what each of these projects had, what was special about them

was really interesting. I think the disciplines are much more closely

related now than they were. There's more overlap? Much more overlap.

We're often working at the very inception of a project and to see

how all those meeting points have been addressed with each of the

sites was very intriguing. Deborah, just parking my little farm about

building language to one side, so much of the success about the

projects across all the prizes this year seems to be vested in the way

that people react to buildings, in the user response. Is that

something, does that represent a new direction for the RIBA? I think

it's the emergence of the voice of the user and the voice of the

experience of the building. I think we're just saturated with these

images, these pictures of architecture and it's time to stop

talking about block busters and architecture centre folds and

actually look at the real experience of every day life, of

going into those buildings. This year I think we paid particular

attention to hearing the voice of the user and that made us have a

very interesting short list as a result. It's interesting, you

assume television is very good at showing you beautiful pictures and

buildings, actually where it really scores is talking about people,

showing buildings and people's experience of those buildings, it's

that experience that is what it's about, why we build them and go to

them? The way architecture is presented people forget it's

occupied by real people. It becomes this glamorous and sublime

experience, but it's for people, they pay good money for it. They go

through hell to deliver it. The commissioning process, you know,

getting this thing to be built is a real challenge. It's got to be used

at the end of the day. All these buildings on tonight's short list

they all have this magical experience quality, it's been, you

particularly enjoyed visiting them? Yes, I think each one offered

something very specific. It was fascinating to see how many

different ways architecture can be applied. I have to ask you as a

judge, you probably can't tell me, but whether you have a particular

project you would like to see win? My lips are absolutely sealed.

knew used say that, you have been gagged. But Deborah, you as chair

of everything, have no such gag. No doubt you have an opinion. For me,

particularly from seeing the films this evening, is the, that slow-

burning project in Ireland, I think is an absolute treat that has

shocked everybody. It came out of nowhere. So, that's got my vote,

even though I do like an every day office block that brings glamour to

your journey to work. And to your life. Do you see that the awards,

the way they're going if the way the jury committee is are awarding,

does that cheer you? Absolutely. Particularly for a new generation

of architects who care about holistic design and not just about

the sort of trophy architecture we've seen. It's a good clarion

call and we want more of it next year, please.

Thank you, thank you both. We've heard from thrao of this year's

judges from the Stirling -- three of this year's judge from the

Stirling Prize and all of them have been commendably tight-lipped,

however, it is now time to find the news that everybody here at least

has been waiting for. Which of those six outstanding projects has

won the RIBA Stirling Prize for Building of the Year 2011.

And a cheque for �20,000 that goes with it. Behind me is Angela Brady,

with Christine Murray, editor of the architect's journal.

This is all very exciting. The RIBA is here to create the

conditions in which excellent, sustainable architecture can

flourish. It's the UK's most important architecture prize and it

goes to the architects of the building that has done the most for

British architecture in the past year. And the winner of the 2011

RIBA Stirling Prize is, the Evelyn Grace School in Brixton.

What an extraordinary surprise. It was Hopkins Velodrome tipped as the

number one potential winner, but instead it the prize goes to Zaha

practice who is now stepping up to the stage. Zaha is not with them

this evening. This is a project costing �37 million. Two architects

and the school principal. Please come and accept your much-deserved

award. Congratulations. Fantastic. It's wonderful. Thanks a

lot to the RIBA, thanks a lot to the jury. It's a great feeling, a

wonderful feeling to come back, second time. This one is

particularly meaningful, I think. It's the beauty of the building is

recognised not only by the jury but by the people living and breathing

in space and the building, as we saw earlier. I think that really,

speaks of a more expanded notion of beauty which involves the

anticipation and realisation of vital and productive life processes

and I think weaving quite a number of times back to the -- we've gone

quite a number of times back to the school. I want to thank Peter

Walker for being so fantastic and really with this wonderful moral

purpose, a kind of flopbthropic purpose, with high aspirations and

passions. I'm so happy that we're finally able to deliver, calling to

such aspirations and ambitions that this project recognised. It's

really an inspiration and challenge to live up to this and make

building which contributes to this kind of wonderful educational

project. As I've said, we've gone back and it's wonderful to see

those students owning up the building, loving the building,

seeing the quality and the beauty. That's what I think architecture

beauty is, in an expansive and extended set. Thanks to the client

and thanks to RIBA. Well, many, many congratulations to

Zaha Hadid Architects, the winners of this year's Stirling Prize for

Building of the Year for the Evelyn Grace academy in building. It's

loved by its users. Cong laigsdz again, too, to the other prize

winners this evening, Coffey Architects for the Stephen Lawrence

Prize and WOHA for the Lubetkin Prize. That brings the visual feast

of glorious new architecture to an end. Those were the RIBA's best

building of 2011. Goodnight. For the building to look special,

it makes people feel that we're going to be well educated. I really

was surprised that they actually put a great architect to do this

and they did spend a lot of money and time on this. The first time I