# Stirling Prize

The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. It is named after the architect James Stirling, organised and awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The Stirling Prize is presented to "the architects of the building that has made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture in the past year". The architects must be RIBA members. Until 2014, the building could have been anywhere in the European Union, but since 2015 entries have had to be in the United Kingdom. In the past, the award included a £20,000 prize, but it currently carries no prize money.

## History

The award was founded in 1996, and is considered to be the most prestigious architecture award in the United Kingdom. The presentation ceremony has been televised by Channel 4. Six shortlisted buildings are chosen from a long-list of buildings that have received a RIBA National Award. These awards are given to buildings showing "high architectural standards and substantial contribution to the local environment".
In addition to the RIBA Stirling Prize, five other awards are given to buildings on the long-list. In 2015 they consisted of: the RIBA National Award, the RIBA Regional Award, the Manser Medal, the Stephen Lawrence Prize and the RIBA Client of the Year Award. For years prior to 1996, the award was known as the "Building of the Year Award".
In 2000 several architects from Scotland and Wales made claims of metropolitan bias after five out of seven designs shortlisted by judges were located within London. Critics described the list as "London-centric". The chairman of the judges in the contest rejected the claims, saying that the first Stirling Prize was awarded to a building in Salford, Greater Manchester.
On 30 September 2020, RIBA announced that the awards had been postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Judges selected the 2021 prize winner from the 2020 shortlist.

## Laureates and runners-up
### As the RIBA Building of the Year Award

| Year | Winning work |
| 1987 | St Oswald's Hospice, Newcastle upon Tyne, by Jane and David Darbyshire |
| 1988 | Truro Crown Courts, Truro, Cornwall, by Evans and Shalev |
| 1989 | Nelson Mandela Primary School, Birmingham, West Midlands, by William Howland |
| 1991 | Woodlea Primary School, Bordon, Hampshire, by Nev Churcher and Sally Daniels |
| 1993 | Sackler Galleries, London |
| 1994 | Waterloo International railway station, London, by Nicholas Grimshaw |
| 1995 | McAlpine Stadium, Huddersfield by Populous |

### As the Stirling Prize

| Year | Laureate | Winning work | Winning work | Nominees and works |
| 1996 | Stephen Hodder | | Centenary Building, University of Salford, Salford | |
| 1997 | James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates | | Stuttgart Music School, Stuttgart, Germany | Will Alsop for Hotel du Département des Bouches-du-Rhône, Marseille, France Mark Guard for roof-top apartment, Paris, France Richard Murphy for Maggie's Centre, Edinburgh Richard Rogers Partnership for Paul Hamlyn Learning Resource Centre, Thames Valley University, London Chris Wilkinson for Stratford Market depot, Jubilee line, London |
| 1998 | Foster and Partners | | Imperial War Museum, Duxford, Cambridgeshire | Rick Mather Architects for a private house, London Ian Ritchie Architects for Crystal Palace Park Concert Platform, Crystal Palace, London Ian Taylor with Bennetts Associates for Richard Attenborough Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester Stephenson Bell for Quay Bar, Manchester (demolished in 2007) Inskip and Jenkins for Temple of Concord and Victory (restoration), Stowe, Buckinghamshire Günter Behnisch for St Benno School, Dresden, Germany Günter Behnisch for Landesgirokasse, Stuttgart, Germany David Chipperfield for an office and studio building, Düsseldorf, Germany Norman Foster and Partners for Commerzbank HQ, Frankfurt, Germany Colin St John Wilson for British Library, London |
| 1999 | Future Systems | | Lord's Media Centre, London | David Chipperfield Architects for River and Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire Benson & Forsyth for Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Alsop, Lyall & Störmer for North Greenwich tube station, London Chris Wilkinson Architects for Jubilee Line Extension Project, London Wilford Associates for Sto AG Marketing and Training Building, Stühlingen, Germany Foster and Partners for Reichstag, Berlin, Germany O'Donnell & Tuomey for Ranelagh Multi-Denominational School, Ranelagh, Dublin, Ireland |
| 2000 | Alsop & Störmer | | Peckham Library, London | Caruso St John for New Art Gallery Walsall, West Midlands Norman Foster and Partners for Canary Wharf Station, London Marks Barfield for London Eye, London Richard Rogers Partnership for 88 Wood Street, City of London Sauerbruch Hutton for GSW Headquarters, Berlin, Germany Chetwood Associates for Sainsbury's Supermarket, Greenwich, London |
| 2001 | Wilkinson Eyre Architects | | Magna Centre, Rotherham, South Yorkshire | Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, Anthony Hunt for Eden Project, Cornwall Eldridge Smerin for The Lawns, Highgate, London Jeremy Dixon Edward Jones for National Portrait Gallery extension, London Guy Greenfield Architects for The Surgery, Hammersmith, London Michael Hopkins & Partners for Portcullis House and Westminster Underground Station, London Michael Wilford & Partners for British Embassy in Berlin, Germany |
| 2002 | Wilkinson Eyre Architects & Gifford | | Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Gateshead | Malcolm Fraser Architects for Dance Base, Grassmarket, Edinburgh Edward Cullinan Architects for Weald and Downland Gridshell, Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, West Sussex David Chipperfield Architects for Ernsting's Service Centre, Coesfeld-Lette, Germany Building Design Partnership for Hampden Gurney Church of England Primary School, London Richard Rogers Partnership for Lloyd's Register of Shipping, London Benson & Forsyth for Millennium Wing, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland |
| 2003 | Herzog & de Meuron | | Laban, Deptford, London | Bill Dunster Architects for BedZED, Hackbridge, London Eric Parry Architects for 30 Finsbury Square, London Foster and Partners for Great Court, British Museum, London Ian Ritchie Architects for Plymouth Theatre Royal Production Centre, Plymouth Sutherland Hussey Architects with Jake Harvey, Donald Urquhart, Glen Onwin and Sandra Kennedy for Tiree Shelter, Inner Hebrides, Scotland |
| 2004 | Foster and Partners | | 30 St Mary Axe, London | Studio Daniel Libeskind for Imperial War Museum North, Trafford Park, Greater Manchester MacCormac Jamieson Prichard with Rummey Design for The Phoenix Initiative, Coventry Foster and Partners for Business Academy, Bexley, London Ian Ritchie Architects for Spire of Dublin, Ireland Peter Cook, Colin Fournier for Kunsthaus, Graz, Austria |
| 2005 | EMBT & RMJM | | Scottish Parliament building, Edinburgh | Bennetts Associates for Jubilee Library, Brighton Zaha Hadid for BMW Central Building, Leipzig, Germany Foster and Partners for McLaren Technology Centre, Woking O'Donnell & Tuomey for Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland Alsop Designs for Fawood Children's Centre, Harlesden, London |
| 2006 | Richard Rogers Partnership | | Barajas Airport Terminal 4, Madrid, Spain | Adjaye Associates for Whitechapel Idea Store, London Hopkins Architects for Evelina Children's Hospital, London Caruso St John Architects for Brick House, London Richard Rogers Partnership for Senedd (Welsh Assembly building), Cardiff Zaha Hadid for Phaeno Science Centre, Wolfsburg, Germany |
| 2007 | David Chipperfield Architects | | Museum of Modern Literature, Marbach, Germany | David Chipperfield Architects for America's Cup Building, Valencia, Spain Office for Metropolitan Architecture/Arup-AFA for Casa da Música, Porto, Portugal Foster and Partners for Dresden Station Redevelopment, Dresden, Germany Glenn Howells Architects, for Savill Building Visitors' Centre, Windsor Great Park, Windsor Haworth Tompkins for Young Vic Theatre, London |
| 2008 | Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Alison Brooks Architects and Maccreanor Lavington | | Accordia housing development, Cambridge | Grimshaw/Arcadis for Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA station, Amsterdam, Netherlands Denton Corker Marshall for Manchester Civil Justice Centre, Manchester Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher for Nord Park Railway, Innsbruck, Austria Allies and Morrison for Royal Festival Hall, London Allford Hall Monaghan Morris for Westminster Academy, London |
| 2009 | Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners | | Maggie's Centre, London | Tony Fretton Architects for Fuglsang Kunstmuseum, Lolland, Denmark Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners for Bodegas Protos winery, Peñafiel, Spain BDP for Liverpool One Masterplan, Liverpool Eric Parry Architects for 5 Aldermanbury Square, London Allford Hall Monaghan Morris for Kentish Town Health Centre, London |
| 2010 | Zaha Hadid | | MAXXI – National Museum of the 21st Century Arts, Rome, Italy | David Chipperfield for Neues Museum, Berlin DSDHA for Christ's College, Guildford Rick Mather Architects for Ashmolean Museum, Oxford dRMM for Clapham Manor Primary School, London Theis and Khan for Bateman's Row, Shoreditch, London |
| 2011 | Zaha Hadid | | Evelyn Grace Academy, London | O'Donnell & Tuomey for An Gaeláras, Derry, Northern Ireland Allford Hall Monaghan Morris for The Angel Building, London David Chipperfield Architects for Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany Bennetts Associates for Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon Hopkins Architects for The Velodrome, London |
| 2012 | Stanton Williams | | Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge | David Chipperfield Architects for The Hepworth, Wakefield O'Donnell & Tuomey for Lyric Theatre (Belfast), Belfast OMA for Maggie's Centre, Glasgow OMA with Allies and Morrison for New Court, London Populous for Olympic Stadium, London |
| 2013 | Witherford Watson Mann Architects | | Astley Castle, Nuneaton, Warwickshire | Grafton Architects for the medical school at University of Limerick, Ireland Hawkins/Brown with Studio Egret West for Park Hill, Sheffield Alison Brooks Architects for Newhall Be, Essex heneghan peng architects for Giant's Causeway Visitors' Centre, Antrim, Northern Ireland Niall McLaughlin Architects for Bishop Edward King Chapel, Ripon College Cuddesdon, South Oxfordshire |
| 2014 | Haworth Tompkins | | Everyman Theatre, Liverpool | Mecanoo for Library of Birmingham, Birmingham Zaha Hadid for London Aquatics Centre, London Renzo Piano for The Shard, London O'Donnell & Tuomey for Saw Swee Hock Student Centre at LSE, London Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios for Manchester School of Art, Manchester |
| 2015 | Allford Hall Monaghan Morris | | Burntwood School, Wandsworth, London | Niall McLaughlin Architects for Darbishire Place, Whitechapel, London Reiach and Hall Architects for Maggie's Centre Lanarkshire, Airdrie, Scotland Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners for NEO Bankside, Bankside, London heneghan peng architects for University of Greenwich Stockwell Street Building, Greenwich, London McInnes Usher McKnight Architects (MUMA) for Whitworth Art Gallery extension, Manchester |
| 2016 | Caruso St John Architects | | Newport Street Gallery, Vauxhall, London | Herzog & de Meuron for Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, Oxford Loyn & Co Architects for Outhouse (private residence), Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire Michael Laird Architects & Reiach and Hall Architects for Riverside Campus, City of Glasgow College, Glasgow, Scotland dRMM Architects for Trafalgar Place housing, Elephant and Castle, London Wilkinson Eyre Architects for Weston Library, University of Oxford, Oxford |
| 2017 | dRMM | | Hastings Pier, East Sussex | Groupwork + Amin Taha for Barrett's Grove housing scheme, Stoke Newington, London Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners for British Museum World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre, London Reiach and Hall Architects and Michael Laird Architects for City Campus at the City of Glasgow College, Glasgow Baynes and Mitchell Architects for Command of the Oceans display at Chatham Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent 6a architects for Photography Studio for Juergen Teller, London |
| 2018 | Foster + Partners | | Bloomberg London | Waugh Thistleton Architects for Bushey Cemetery, Bushey, Hertfordshire Henley Halebrown for Chadwick Hall, University of Roehampton, London Jamie Fobert Architects with Evans & Shalev for the new build at Tate St Ives, Cornwall MUMA for Storey's Field Community Centre and Nursery, North West Cambridge Niall McLaughlin Architects for The Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre, Worcester College, Oxford |
| 2019 | Mikhail Riches with Cathy Hawley | | Goldsmith Street council housing, Norwich | Matthew Barnett Howland with Dido Milne and Oliver Wilton for Cork House, Berkshire Grimshaw Architects for London Bridge station, Southwark, London Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners for The Macallan distillery and Visitor Experience, Moray, Scotland Witherford Watson Mann Architects for Nevill Holt Opera, Leicestershire Feilden Fowles for The Weston, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Yorkshire |
| 2020 | Award postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic | Award postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic | Award postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic | Award postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic |
| 2021 | Grafton Architects | | Kingston University Town House, London | Marks Barfield for Cambridge Central Mosque Ney & Partners and William Matthews Associates for Tintagel Castle footbridge, North Cornwall Carmody Groarke for Windermere Jetty Museum Stanton Williams for Key Worker Housing, Eddington, Cambridge Amin Taha for 15 Clerkenwell Close, Islington, London |
| 2022 | Niall McLaughlin Architects | | The New Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge | Hopkins Architects for 100 Liverpool Street, London Reiach and Hall Architects for Forth Valley College - Falkirk Campus, Scotland Henley Halebrown for Hackney New Primary School and 333 Kingsland Road, London Panter Hudspith Architects for Orchard Gardens, Elephant Park, Elephant and Castle, London Mæ for Sands End Arts and Community Centre, Fulham, London |
| 2023 | Mæ | | John Morden Centre, Morden College, Blackheath, London | Apparata for A House for Artists, Barking, London Adam Khan Architects for Central Somers Town Community Facilities and Housing, Camden, London Witherford Watson Mann Architects for Courtauld Connects, Westminster Sergison Bates for Lavender Hill Courtyard Housing, Clapham, London Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios for University of Warwick Faculty of Arts, Coventry |
| 2024 | Grimshaw, Maynard, Equation and Atkins | | Elizabeth line, London | Al-Jawad Pike for Chowdhury Walk, London Allies and Morrison and Porphyrios Associates for King's Cross Masterplan, London Jamie Fobert Architects and Purcell for National Portrait Gallery, London Mikhail Riches for Park Hill Phase 2, Sheffield Clementine Blakemore Architects for Wraxall Yard, Dorset |