It would be very good for the UK proffession if Adjaye won.

Young, gifted and black.

The RIBA Stirling Prize is awarded to "the architects of the building which has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year".
The prize is awarded to the building not to the architect. In fact is the building owner who gets up to receive the prize...as I remember

David is a nice guy but if the idea store was the greatest contribution to British architecture in 2005 we are seriously running out of ideas here. The only radical aspect of that project is the integration of the Public Library use/typology with the marketplace/retail services and this was an idea created by the local authority not by any of the architects that have participated in the idea store programme. Hopefully Adjaye's time will come with a more robust project in the future.

who is this hadid dude? he could use some kind of award to jump-start his career.

good point Ludwig, I agree he (his building) is not really a contender this time around

IMO Phaeno should get it. also could imagine that that it is the one that gets it. although i like the Brick House very much i would say that
Phaeno has made a much more significant contribution to British architecture.

The Brick House is very nice, but it doesn't feel like its breaking much ground.
Adjaye is definitely a good architect, but again, that particular project isn't earth-shattering so much as nice.
The hospital, the airport and the assembly building don't excite me much.

... so I would say it has to be the Phaeno Centre. Zaha's year this year.

phaeno all the wya, is by far the most innovative project and the one with the most resonance at international level. althought's been zaha's year for the past five years now...

phaeno got its share of publicity even while it was being built. the airport by rogers looks good but exactly how is an airport in spain or a museum in germany a contribution to british architecture? ok, it was designed by a firm based in the uk but still...

zhaha..ha...ha...ha...ah..ah...a...a..a.a..aa..a.a This project reminds me of Birkerts Duluth Public Library....designed to relate to the Iron ore and wheat ships which visit the local harbor......a....a....ah....aha.....ahahz....any docks near by?

good thing this isn't an american competition because we'd definitely need more choices. it that all ya got?

these are all very styley, but i don't see much ground broken.
-zaha's building has the same rounded-corners early seventies graphic effect that matthew sweet adopted for his album covers about ten years ago.
-agree with the comment about adjaye's. he's done better. this one's all skin - and not in a herzog and demeuron way.

i'd probably go for the welsh parliament, too. the other two tech-y projects are kind of ho-hum.

not that i've done anything better.

while i don't know if it's stirling prize material - being residential for the rich and therefore having very little social, institutional, or other ourward-looking intentions that might recommend it - i'm nuts about the idea of the formwork that the roof of the brick house required.

that was my response to the brick house, steven: That roof would be a pretty dramatic thing to live under, but its a single private house that doesn't herald anything much for public architectural culture.

do you give zaha credit for converting what was a seventies graphic effect into a built experience?

i find the welsh parliament building a bit tame and unambitious. I don't know whether ambitious is necessarily the aim of the Stirling Prize, but it seems like it should be.

actually what i like about the welsh parliament is that it's 'tame' - as in sort of quiet and simple. it's one of those projects where you can see how much effort - really focused attention - went in to making it appear so simple.

but unambitious - maybe yes.

i guess the translation of graphic appearances to built form (painting to architecture) is what zaha's been doing for quite a while now. i probably should try to know more about the ideas behind phaeno because all the articles i've seen talk about it as a technical feat. and i've heard the concrete's not so good - so the technical feat gets kind of undermined there. i'd like to know more what they were going after - like knowing about the 'urban carpet' metaphor in looking at the cincinnati project.

i think the builidng about wales should win. people need to know about this beautiful and endangered fish. yes wales definitely wales.

the brick house is the most acopmplished piece of architecture on the list. Just because it is aprivate house shouldnt exclude it or lessen its importance as a piece of architecture. the buildings should be judged on their individual merits not on the programme alone. Also i am unsure of where this idea of the brick house not being innovative is coming from. it is certainly an important progression of a certain philisophical movement in architecture which respects history and is aware that incessent formal/ visual novelty is not the way to create meaning in architecture.

It seems that again most questions query the assessment of disparate ends of the architectural spectrum. the UK Guardian arts section begins to unravell some of the salient issues.

'The Brick House raises the hoary question of how on earth Stirling prize judges can make any sort of fair or valid comparison between a building like this low-lying and secret brick lair and such eyecatching designs as a colourful new air terminal by Richard Rogers, a thrilling science centre by Zaha Hadid and a glamorous new library by David Adjaye that is so with-it that it is not, in fact, allowed to be called a library; it is an idea store, a name branded on to its colourful glass facades by latte-fuelled, 24-hour lifestyle quango folk.

These, and the two other 2006 Stirling contenders, a palmhouse-like London hospital extension designed by Michael Hopkins and the elegant, though much disputed, Welsh national assembly, also by the Richard Rogers Partnership, are all examples of designs brimming with what John Prescott, when he held the environment brief, liked to call the "wow factor" - a bit of design-you-fancy, or a poke in the architectural eye with croquet mallet.

All of these are, in fact, fine buildings in their particular ways, yet each has a very different purpose, and should be judged on its own merits. However, as this would mean soul-searching discussions about architecture and a prize for each, the gameshow-style Stirling prize, awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architects' Journal, would quickly lose its ratings-chasing currency.

Today, the prize is as much a live TV show on the big night, staged against the backdrop of a black-tie dinner with wine and all the trimmings at a top celebrity venue, as it is a judgment on the state of contemporary British architecture. "It's a stuffy affair with none of the excitement of the Turner prize," says Nigel Coates, professor of architecture at the Royal College of Art. "I'm sure the judging committee has worked out a tick list that allows judges to compare one unlikely contender with another, but it's all a bit obvious and, well, dull. But I would not mind designing an architects' Big Brother house to put the contenders in. Just imagine Zaha living with Michael Hopkins and Richard Rogers. That would be good telly."

Jack Pringle, president of Riba, takes a slightly different view. Of this year's contenders he says: "This is the very best of British architecture. These buildings have created amazing places, popular with the people who use them while also pushing boundaries in our knowledge and understanding of architecture."

This year's judges are the television personality Mariella Frostrup, American landscape architect Martha Schwartz, the German architect Stefan Behnisch, Isabel Allen, editor of the Architects' Journal, and Ian Ritchie, architect and chairman. The winner will be announced at the newly restored Roundhouse, Camden Town, on October 14. Expect plaudits, brickbats, and even bricks to fly.

Brick House, London: Caruso St John

Thoughtful, intelligent family house tucked away in a nondescript yard. Gives nothing away from the outside. Inside, it is a compelling sequence of unexpectedly generous spaces, handsomely crafted in brick, with a little concrete and glass. Cave-like, warm and like nothing else

Evelina children's hospital, London: Hopkins Architects

A giant hi-tech conservatory encloses this £60m hospital wing for children overlooking the gardens of Lambeth Palace. The architects have proved they can build as economically as anything erected in the name of the much-hated PFI, and achieve a building 10 times better in terms of design, intelligence and feeling

Phaeno Science Centre, Wolfsburg: Zaha Hadid Architects with Mayer Baehrle Freie Architekten

A stunning building with Hadid at her dramatic best. The swooping, cinematic interior is even more exciting than the operatic exterior. The stuff of science fiction

New Area terminal, Barajas airport, Madrid: Richard Rogers Partnership

Handsome, naturally-lit and colour-coded corridors lead passengers gently to departure lounges in this vast airport extension. The building helps engender calmness in a way of travelling that is becoming increasingly unpleasant

Idea Store, Whitechapel, London: Adjaye/Associates

Silly, patronising name aside, this is a bright and breezy new public library complete with cafe in a largely poor area of east London designed with clarity and easy grace

National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff: Richard Rogers Partnership

Politicians, eh? How they made Rogers' life difficult in Cardiff. Yet the bitching, carping and unnecessary delays have been worth the wait; a light, elegant and soundly green parliament building facing Cardiff Bay and as open to the public as it is safe to be.'

I vote for Zaha to win.

So log your votes here:

partiv.blogspot.com

It's completely unofficial, but I just found out this morning that the AJ's following it, and seeing they are one of the prize sponsors and its editor one of the real panel members, it would be good to voice the average architect/student's opinions by getting hundreds rather than tens of votes.

nice one Norman. Get voting

I disagree with the Guardian article. I think there is possible to compare projects across scales and programmes.

The Stirling Prize is for "the building which has been the most significant for the evolution of architecture in the past year". Strictly speaking it is not for the best piece of architecture, but for the most influential in the changing practice of architecture. Where architecture is 'evolving' to might be a matter for dispute, but this is where the Stirling Prize is valuable. A noteworthy panel appointed by the RIBA make a judgement about where they see architecture going this year, and which individual work of architecture has been most significant step in this direction. It is inherently a forward-looking prize.

I've never seen the TV coverage of the prize, so the Guardian might be right about that.

Also, if people think that individual houses get overlooked just because thy're smaller scale, there is also the Manser Medal.

i think there is possible. no really, there is.

Sorry guys, I had to change the host service I was using.
Should look and work much better now, but if you'd already voted, you have to have the pleasure again ;)
It'll only be meaningful if I get hundreds rather than tens of votes, so please pass it on to your architectural amigos:

PartIV's unofficial Stirling Prize poll

Thanksalot.

I'd vote for the hospital (yes i know it's 80's/90's fare but if you compare it to other hospitals within the uk, you'll understand why). only because the UK needs to invest more into building better spaces for healthcare

frem001 - I think it's fair to say that the govenment in the UK needs to invest more into building better spaces period. Oh I forgot the dreaded PFI procument is meant to do that....

The speculation continues, good odds on Brick House if we take our 'expert' unofical archinect poll.

Current odds at Skybet

Phaeno Science Center 11/8
National Assembly for Wales 11/4
Barajas Airport 4/1
Evelina Children’s Hospital 6/1
Brick House 8/1
Idea Store Whitechapel 10/1

My own bookies Paddy Power

Phaeno Science Center 2/1
National Assembly for Wales 7/2
Barajas Airport 2/1
Evelina Children’s Hospital 7/1
Brick House 8/1
Idea Store Whitechapel 8/1

the brick house has been getting more press all of a sudden. marketing blitz, anyone?

Kevin Mc-Head in the clouds has started the ball rolling with a preview show tonight.

microsite

The British Isles have a different sense of color.

A bit delayed but the winner is .........................

.........the New Area Terminal, Barajas Airport, Madrid designed by Richard Rogers Partnership.

£20k the richer as well as the nice award.
________________________________________________________________

Press Release

The judges commented:

“Whatever the means of approach, by air or by land, the sheer scale and complexity of what has been tackled and achieved here cannot be over-estimated. In response to the key challenge: that of efficiently processing constantly changing passenger flows and associated luggage handling, the resulting building presents a straightforward linear diagram in the form of a clear sequence of spectacular spaces for both departing and arriving passengers."

“Graduated colour is used, not as in most Rogers’s schemes, to delineate services, but for wayfinding. The elegant oversailing roof is a unifying device and succeeds in being both dominant and yet calmly and self-assuredly understated. The sinuous, lightweight consistency of the bamboo slatted lining contrasts with the modular repetition of the gymnastic steel roof structure that in turn is supported off a monumental concrete frame. The structure accommodates vast rooflights that provide shaded daylight throughout the upper level. Intentionally expressive air conditioning outlets, that resemble giant bar code readers, animate the baggage collection stands.”

“The building is robust enough to withstand the results of minor battles lost in terms of signage and shopping, the simplicity and clarity of the architectural ambition being all-dominant. Nowhere more so than externally, where the roof again emerges as the defining feature, sweeping across the building, cloaking the richness within and reinforcing the extruded nature of this infinitely extendable tour de force.”

Jack Pringle, RIBA President, announced the winner and Isabel Allen, Editor of The Architects’ Journal presented Richard Rogers with the prize and a cheque for £20,000.

Barajas Airport beat off stiff competition from five other outstanding contenders: Brick House, London - Caruso St John Architects; Evelina Children’s Hospital, London - Hopkins Architects; Idea Store, Whitechapel, London – Adjaye/Associates; National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff - Richard Rogers Partnership; Phaeno Science Centre, Wolfsburg, Germany - Zaha Hadid Architects and Mayer Bährle Freie Architekten BDA, Germany.
________________________________________________________________

The full building credits are:

New Area Terminal, Barajas Airport, Madrid, Spain
Architect: Richard Rogers Partnership
Co-architect: Estudio Lamela
Client: AENA
Structural engineer: Anthony Hunt Associates/ TPS with OTEP /HCA
Façade engineer: Arup
QS: Hanscombe Ltd /Gabinete
Contractors :
Terminal - UTE
Satellite - UTE
Car park - Dragados
Baggage handling - Siemens dematic
Contract Value: £1,238 million
Date of occupation: February 2006
Gross internal area: 760 million sq m

________________________________________________________________


The uk's 'people's choice' award winner was Evelina Children's Hospital, designed by Hopkins Architects ........... but what do they know!

"beat off stiff" great writing there...

vado - get it on. I was wanking for wales on this one!