The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the six projects selected for the shortlist of the 2023 RIBA Stirling Prize. The annual award is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious recognitions in the field of architecture, judging projects on a range of criteria, including design vision, innovation, originality, and the capacity to engage and delight the occupants and visitors. Sustainability and accessibility are also crucial conditions for the selection. This edition’s shortlist includes projects by architects such as Apparata, Sergison Bates Architects, and Adam Khan Architects, featuring for the first time at the Stirling Awards Shortlist, as well as practices that have previously won, Witherford Watson Mann Architects and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.
The overall winner of the Stirling Prize will be announced at the Stirling Prize Ceremony on October 19, 2023. The award was inaugurated in 1996 for the purpose of highlighting and setting the standard for good architecture across the country. Last year’s award winner was the Magdalene College Library, designed by Níall McLaughlin Architects. The brick and wooden structure provides the students of the University of Cambridge with spaces for education and interaction, including a library archive and an art gallery.
These six remarkable buildings offer thoughtful, creative responses to the really complex challenges we're facing today. Whether it's tackling loneliness, building communities, or preserving our heritage, these projects lay out bold blueprints for purposeful architecture. Amidst a backdrop of housing shortages, growing inequality, and economic uncertainties, this year's shortlist demonstrates that well-designed buildings can offer genuinely inspiring solutions to our most pressing problems. - RIBA President Muyiwa Oki
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RIBA Announces the 30 Winners of the 2023 National AwardsRead on to discover the six shortlisted buildings, along with descriptions provided by RIBA.
A House for Artists / Apparata Architects (Barking, London)
A model for affordable city living: An apartment complex in London’s Barking offers an ambitious model for shared living, with resident artists delivering free creative programs for the local community via a street-facing exhibition space. A permanent installation by Grayson Perry in the complex’s central courtyard pays tribute to the homes of wartime heroes and workers.
Central Somers Town Community Facilities and Housing / Adam Khan Architects (Camden, London)
Building community and tackling inequality: Playfully designed spaces arranged around a small park within an area of high socio-economic deprivation in London’s Camden. Contributing to a wider regeneration plan, the development provides local residents with social housing, an after-school club, a very generous adventure playground and includes premises for a theatre education charity.
Courtauld Connects - The Courtauld Institute of Art / Witherford Watson Mann Architects (London)
Modernizing a landmark building: Careful conservation and bold interventions rework a warren of spaces inside an eighteenth-century building, home to a cultural institute and the UK’s “smallest university.” Subtle interventions, including re-leveled floors and new doors to the main galleries, have notably improved accessibility and eased visitor flow.
John Morden Centre / Mæ (Greenwich, London)
Elderly living without isolation: In Blackheath, a 300-year-old residential and nursing facility has been given a new lease of life. With treatment rooms, a hair salon, a nail bar, an events space, and well-being facilities, the center has been designed to encourage connection and movement among residents, supporting healthier and longer lives.
Lavender Hill Courtyard Housing / Sergison Bates architects (Clapham, London)
Maximizing difficult urban spaces: New apartments have been ingeniously inserted into a previously undesirable and highly constrained urban site. Beyond the unassuming entrance, a welcoming courtyard centers the scheme and offers communal space for residents.
University of Warwick - Faculty of Arts / Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (West Midlands)
Creating connections in higher education: The surrounding parkland is woven into a building that unites the arts and humanities under one roof. A feature staircase, inspired by the structure of a tree, grows through the central atrium with each branch leading to flexible spaces designed to inspire collaboration and cross-pollination of the arts.
