Britain's Best New Building: Riba Stirling Prize 2016

you that a 9pm. Now on BBC News, the short listed buildings and the

winner for the 2016 Riba Stirling Prize, one of the most prestigious

awards in architecture. Welcome to Riba, the Royal Institute

of British Architects and this As you can see as you can

see, the party balloons Well, we have six buildings

and the judges have to decide which one of them has

made the greatest contribution towards the evolution

of architecture. We have one that is said to look

like a glass wedding cake, another a house with

a field on the top. Accessibility, sustainability,

design, vision, delight - these are all the criteria

and also problem-solving. For instance, how do you design

a college when you don't really know what the students of tomorrow

are going to need to know? And also, can an open

and transparent building make governments

open and transparent? Over the next half an hour or so,

you will get to see each of the six buildings and make your own mind up

and then, at the end, we find out what the judges have

decided is this year's It's bold, it's innovative,

it's completely different to anything that Oxford has seen,

and yet it is not. It is a sort of modern

version of the Sheldonian. It is an amazing city and to make

a contribution in this It is a positive challenge,

but it is a challenge. The School of Government

is Oxford University's professional school,

which aims to improve government. They really were interested

in creating space and opportunities for the people to meet

and to exchange. It really was this idea

of strengthening communities, You can simultaneously keep

to yourself with the books and a computer, but at the same

time, if you want to, you can just go outside the office

and meet other people. I really appreciate having such

a diversity of people around. That is quite amazing,

to be able to learn from other We started in a very primitive way

with this idea of having an internal forum space, like a heart,

like a campfire almost, everything was around

that central space. For us, it was very important

that we continue the legacy of Oxford, this geometrically

interesting pattern, that we would continue this

in the masterplan, as well. It has picked up a lot of classical

features of Oxford. It has those shapes

of the Sheldonian quite consciously, each of the glass

panels has a certain spacing and that spacing is actually exactly

the same as the spacing in the stone facade

of the ancient Bodleian Library. That very beautiful honey-coloured

stone is the colour of Oxford stone and it has been fashioned in that

lovely double-rounded stonework, which reflects the most lovely

classical finishings So you enter the building under this

two-storey overhang and I think it is important that the building

guides you almost, opens up its wings to welcome

you and you can look up into the window of the world,

which is a huge window, which is a window for the children

to look out onto the streets and for people entering

the building to see There is a broad stair bringing

you down to the lower level and the lower-level house

has all the lecture The first three floors are basically

the teaching floors and in these spaces we made the stairs

following the form of the forum. On top of that, we then

have faculty and staff and there you don't want

necessarily the students to be in the foreground,

so we bring the working spaces, the offices,

to the forum and push the circulation into the back

of the building and that becomes this tight spiral stair at the back,

which brings you up to the top of the building, which is again

the junior and senior common rooms, with a big public roof terrace,

which I really like, like the library or the lounge

for the students. The transparency of the building,

the fact that you get natural light no matter

where you are in the building, You don't have the feeling

of wanting to go outside because you are already

a bit outside, as well. Oxford is a place of genuinely

independent scholarship, so to be able to bring a building

to that which is as beautiful as the buildings built

several hundred years ago And now from a bold new arrival

among the dreaming spires of Oxford to a second nominee

in the same city. The challenge here was to transform

an old building and try to make it This project has been

a personal dream of mine since I came to the Bodleian,

so today it is so exciting to have a facility that has changed

really dramatically the dynamic between the University itself

and the citizens of Oxford The Western Library is part

of the Bodleian Library, it is a group of research libraries

in the University of Oxford, which was founded in 1602,

and is now the home for the Bodleian Special Collections,

its rare books, The library is actually

a refurbishment of a much older building, designed

by Giles Gilbert Scott and completed in the early years of the war,

but by the end of the 20th century We really needed to undertake

a major renovation of the building Giles Gilbert Scott was a famous

architect of his time, But he really turned a blank

face to Broad Street. He did not live up to

the extraordinary setting right here in the centre of Oxford

and if you think across the street there are the most

beautiful buildings - Hawksmoor's Clarendon Building,

Wren's Sheldonian. The brief to us was to turn

the existing building into a library for special

collections, with public facilities, The overall number of books

that are actually in the building now is much

less than what was there before, but that meant

we could carve out bigger

spaces for other uses. So there is the public space,

the exhibition spaces, and then we could create

new reading rooms. There is an amazing

new reading room up on the top

of the building with these fantastic views out over Oxford,

the dreaming spires We have reading rooms

where scholars and members of the public can come and consult

materials, we have spaces where conservation of library

materials can take place, new facilities where

the latest techniques can be applied to the preservation of library

collections. In a way, externally this

is the biggest change. By introducing this long horizontal

glass wall, some three metres or so back, it has completely transformed

the facade of the building to something that is much

lighter than it was. We are standing inside

the Western Library in a space that used

to be 11 stories of book shelving and is now a space where we are able

to share our great collections with When I came in and looked

up what I really liked was instead of walls

hiding the books, because after all this

is a library, you have got glass so that

you see all the books. Previously I walked around it

for many, many years and are always Now that it is open

with a restaurant it is very It has become one of the most loved

buildings in an incredibly short space of time in this city full

of extraordinary buildings, and that has been one of the most wonderful

aspects of the whole project. The Western Library was not the only

transformation on the shortlist. In south London, the artist

Damien Hirst presented Turn a street of listed

industrial buildings into a I have to say, having walked

around it for a year, What we have is a historic

building and they have allowed the history

of the building to speak just enough

without it being too overwhelming, Newport Street is a long-term

idea of Damien Hirst's. He has built a collection over

the last 15 years and the purchase of the building

allowed him the possibility to Damien Hirst was fairly

closely involved and from an architect's point

of view, he was the dream client. He's a nice person but he is also

very demanding and really passionate about making spaces

that are good for art. They are amazing buildings

from 1912, that were used to build There are three

buildings and they are very special because they are

enormous single interiors, very tall with rather distinctive facades

in brick and the design was about trying to add to what

we thought was special about these buildings,

doing a new building at one end

with the entrance and galleries and another building at the other

end with The first show was a very simple

painting show and it was the opportunity to place

a painting on that wall and it Now we have the Jeff Koon's

show, so it is actually You can see that in these two,

we had sufficient height to build the new floor

here and here, in order to make two large galleries on the ground

and first floor and for this one we didn't

quite have enough height, so we made a bridge here

that connects this level and this level

and in the centre there is

this very tall gallery. In this gallery,

you are going up eight metres to get to the upper floor,

it is a long way to go so we try to make staircases

something of an event. My favourite part is

the stair wells. The stairwell, when you are looking

at the brickwork, it is In the gallery spaces

all those beautiful buttress walls are covered with

new white gallery walls. The staircases are

made out of brick. That is about trying to remind

people that they are in a really amazing

solid brick building. We are on the other side

of the tracks, running parallel to the gallery is the

Waterloo train line. If you go beyond that

you have To me, it is about the kind

of London that I love necessarily about what London

is like today, It is from the slightly

earlier feeling Anyone can come in,

enjoy the work, enjoy restaurant, comeback

as many times as they want. This isn't the only short listed

project in South London. Again, another transformation,

but here none of the original 70s concrete survived this housing

redevelopment in London's Elephant We had 7-8 years

without a garden, now we have got the balcony,

the patio there. Sometimes areas are built up

and you think, what were they They had some grand idea but did

they actually think that people were going to live there

and how they were going to use this Here, I do feel that they

have thought about it. Trafalgar Place is the first stage

It was very important we set the standard in

this first phase of what we can expect for the rest of the scheme.

The Heygate estate in the past was very closed and turned in on itself.

What we have done the Trafalgar Place is open districts up

to the public, make sure there are connections

between private and public and to ensure we opened the streets

such that people are walking over the streets all of the time.

It feels healthier, you look out your window and you are

looking at greenery, which is not easy in London unless you are able

to pay for it, but we are looking at plants and over there is

vegetation and stuff we can eat if we wanted.

We are so glad that we ended up here.

See fate, it goes in different ways, doesn't it?

I have a shower that suits me and it suits her.

We are in the area that we wanted to stay in and we have got

At Trafalgar Place we have a combination of affordable and

private housing, but you can't tell the difference between units, you

can't tell what is affordable and what is private.

We have seven unique buildings and they are all

characterised in a different approach to brickwork.

From the yellows through to the reds into

On the road we have pixelated colour band that mirrors

the beautiful building opposite and in this

courtyard space we have the

yellow stock bricks and on east to west

route across the site, we are predominantly using red bricks.

I suppose is a building material it is

something that people feel more comfortable with, it is more

accessible than the larger expanses of concrete in the former building.

The scheme is the perfect union of built form and high quality

landscape and I think that has been the real

built fabric and the quality of the planting

We would be comfortable wherever we lived, but because that

We like a nice place and we always have.

Did we ever think we would get one of these?

So for Jean and Reg, a beautiful new home.

In Glasgow, the challenge was a

new college that would be able to move with the times.

We wanted to make a gatekeeper, a marker in the

city fabric that would become a landmark.

We were desperate to create a building that had a quality

and ambition that would rub off on the students themselves.

This is a super building, a world-class

building, I'm very proud to have this building designed.

The overarching brief was to create a

new community, because it was a super campus that was join

together three different colleges from all

over Glasgow and our brief was to create

a new single campus, but in

It was very important that the architects understood

that they had to work from a classroom level right

through to a specialist workshop through to the inspiring open spaces

It is actually this that draws the whole of the

college together, around which everyone orientates themselves.

We have the entrance at the ground floor,

library, these classrooms, the cafeterias and the office areas for

the staff themselves all grouped around the space so people can can

It is the front door of this college and beside this front door where

everyone assembles, 2000 students, we have a grand window looking out

into Glasgow and Glasgow looking into us.

There are very few buildings in Glasgow that properly

This location for the Maritime College and School of

Engineering was a gift to the project, where we could really

engage the building but the Clyde and through that with the city.

The seven story building has an amazing

Some of these are general classrooms where they can

study ship's chart work, some of them are very specialist

classrooms where they can get hands-on

experience in tying knots and disembarking from ships, some of

them are high-technology classrooms that are probably five years ahead

They can have a simulation of the bridge of a

It is an almost identical layout and instruments and screams

to what a ship's captain or a chief engineer would see.

The facilities linkup so you can have us on the simulator as well

as having the engine room workshop, being able to call down is if you

It has definitely improved the way the

college runs things rather than keeping engine everyone engine

side and backside separate and in

You get to see the engineers do their thing and

hopefully they get a chance to see what we do when we do our job as

Some six floors below is actually a large ship working

engine, which we bought from the industry and it works 24-7.

The engineers are trained not only to

plan its used but also to repair and maintain a working ships engine.

I think it is one of the only colleges

with a working engine that we can go in and fix.

This engine here, we are

taking it apart and we've only been here for a few weeks.

The staff team that work with the architects and builders can

be truly proud of a cohesive project that actually proves with a

brilliant client and brilliant architects and brilliant builders,

you can achieve a unique, iconic and world-class building.

And finally, we leave the city for the

tranquillity of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.

Here the clients did not get a landmark, they got a

What we wanted was a very energy-efficient

house, which you can achieve much more easily if you build from

We wanted a modern house, but we didn't want it to be built

like it was a house from a hundred years

ago, we wanted to see it was a

Certain places where you can stand in this building

and wherever you look you are looking through into another space,

or through our courtyard or through another window out to the view

Those are always nice places to pause and have a look.

We work at home and we want a studio space for both

The moment I got here I went into the studio and worked like mad

and I produced more while all the building

work was going on than I

Probably the biggest challenge of this

project was how to fit a piece of architecture,

a substantial piece of

architecture, into such a beautiful landscape.

Difficult to picture what

was on the site before, but in essence it was a two-storey small

cottage, typical of the forest, not very beautiful.

Things do not have to be old to be very beautiful.

I think this is very beautiful as a house.

The driveway, which runs east- west and slices right through

the site, was the key move to subdivide

two studios, but to work the work element of the house, the extended

driveway that becomes a gallery street through the middle of the

property is there a gallery, where they displayed their art, and then

on the southern side is the living accommodation.

It made sense just to quietly bring the top meadow over and have it

It is not an architectural dreary roof, it is a

It is all to do with horizontal angles and

breaking it up with elements and as you can see from the distance views

it does not stand out and shout out, it is not

look like a huge strip on

the landscape, it is lower than the original building.

I think it was necessary to stay on one level,

which suits me fine, I do want any steps here at all.

So we can get around on the scooters.

I bought one for myself because I have always

loved them and skated about and Michael had

I think the house is going to get better over time as the plants grow.

One-off housing for individual clients is the hardest sector to

It is deeply personal, it is a very close working relationship

and one based on deep friendship that goes on beyond the completion

This is beautiful, in my eyes and her eyes and in his,

but not necessarily in the eyes of the neighbours.

Probably in ten years' time people will

think differently and they will start saying this is a classic

It feels like it will last a hundred years.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to

announce that the winner of the 2016 Riba Stirling Prize is...

Newport Street Gallery by Caruso and St John!

Peter St John the winner with Adam Caruso of this year's Royal

Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize Building of the Year.

I am incredibly pleased, it is very exciting.

Your partner isn't here this evening.

He was convinced we weren't going to win and he wouldn't be

able to handle it so he stayed away, unfortunately.

What are you most proud of in this building? The staircases are very

special. I like the gallery spaces best. I think the arrangement of the

galleries on the way that you can walk around it, I think it is a very

enjoyable place to spend time and a very nice place to look at art, that

is what I like about it. Thank you very much indeed and

congratulations. That is it from us tonight. The announcement of this

year's Riba Stirling Prize, the Newport Street Gallery in London.

The weather is staying dry and settled throughout the weekend and

for the week ahead. There will be some showers overnight, mainly for

central and