© Luke Hayes

For the second year in a row, Zaha Hadid was announced as the winner of the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize.  Often labeled as the UK’s most important architecture award, Hadid will be awarded £20,000 for her design of the Evelyn Grace Academy in London.  Recognizing the ‘architects of the building that has made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture in the past year’, to be considered the project must be built in Britain or the architects head office must be in the UK.

Zaha Hadid’s Evelyn Grace Academy was shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize along with O’Donnell and Tuomey’s An Gaelaras, David Chipperfield Architects’s Folkwang Museum , AHMM’s Angel Building, Bennetts Associates’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre, and the Velodrome by Hopkins Architects.  Last year Hadid was awarded the prize for her design of the MAXXI Museum of Modern Art in Rome.

This year’s award was a bit controversial; former president of the RIBA, George Ferguson’s reaction, ‘This is an appalling result and the worst decision since the Magna Centre beat Girmshaw’s Eden Project to win the Stirling Prize in 2001. It’s a great big own goal. It is also the worst possible message to send to [education secretary] Michael Gove. In fact it reinforces his case. A good school is one that can be replicated. But this can’t. It’s a one-off. The prize [has become] an award from architects for architects. It makes me angry.’

More reactions regarding the 2011 Stirling Prize can be found at the Architects Journal.

Evelyn Grace Academy / Zaha Hadid Architects © Luke Hayes

The Royal Institute of British Architecture (RIBA) recently released the shortlist for this year’s Stirling Prize, the UK’s most prestigious architecture prize. Presented annually to the architects of the ‘building that has made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture in the past year’ this year’s six shortlisted projects range from the most expensive city academy school every built to a 1932 refurbished theater.  The winner will be announced in October at the RIBA Stirling Prize dinner, held at the Magna Science and Adventure Centre in Rotherham, winner of the 2001 RIBA Stirling Prize.

Follow the break for the complete shortlist and more details about the RIBA Stirling Prize.

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Here is a video about one of Zaha Hadid‘s latest project, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSRC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  This project has a holistic approach unifying architecture and engineering, landscape and building artist expression and environmental responsive design.  It is intended to not only be a leading research facility, but also a LEED Platinum certified building upon its completion.

We recently featured Zaha Hadid, as she won this years esteemed RIBA Stirling Prize for the design of the MAXXI National Museum in Rome. Full coverage of the RIBA Stirling Prize along with photographs of the MAXXI can be found here.

Also you can check our previous coverage of Saudi Arabai – in particular last year ArchDaily personally visited Saudi Arabia for the opening of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, an international graduate-level research institution.  Photographs and a write up on KAUST here.

© Iwan Baan

A few weeks ago we told you about the short list for this years RIBA Stirling Prize. And once again our readers got it right, as the majority of your comments favorited Zaha Hadid’s MAXXI Museum in Rome, which has been announced as the winner of the prestigious british award.

You can check our previous coverage of the MAXXI Museum.

© Iwan Baan

Now in its 15th year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is awarded to the architects of the best new European building ‘built or designed in Britain’. The winner will be announced at the RIBA Stirling Prize Dinner on 2 October, and broadcast live on BBC Two’s The Culture Show at 6.30pm, presented by Kevin McCloud.

Complete shortlist after the break. read more »

© José Miguel Hernández Hernández

The RIBA Stirling prize is given each year to one selected building. And this year’s prize went to the Maggie Center by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.

Richard Rogers on the Maggie’s Center building, by The Architects’ Journal

This small buildings has a great inside/outside integration, given by the combination of several transparent planes and the independent roof, as you can see on the photos.

After the break, more photos by architectural photographer José Miguel Hernández Hernández, and a short video by AJ.
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The Shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize 2009 has been announced. The six shortlisted schemes were chosen from a midlist of 22 RIBA Award 2009 winners.

The RIBA Stirling Prize 2009 winner will be announced at the RIBA Stirling Prize 2009 Dinner on 17 October 2009 at Old Billingsgate, London.

You can see the six chosen schemes after the break. For more information, click here. read more »