Schools and museums contend for RIBA Stirling prize

Two London schools and three museums have made the shortlist for this year’s Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling prize.

It is the first time two schools -Christ’s College School in Guildford and Clapham Manor Primary School - have been shortlisted in the award’s 15-year history.

They were chosen because “they represent what all schools should be: light, well laid out and well-equipped environments in which all students can flourish,” RIBA president Ruth Reed said.

Click here or on the image on the right for a gallery of the shorlist

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the Neues Museum in Berlin and the MAXXI Museum in Rome will also battle it out for the £20,000 prize money, which is annually awarded to the architects of the best new European building “built or designed in Britain.”

It is “unique” in the awards history for it to feature three museums, Reed said:

“[They] show us three very different ways of building- and re-building- museums and galleries. They are the fruits of an economic boom in the last decade and sadly may represent the end of an era.”

The shortlist of six finally includes a mixed-use commercial/private development in east London called Batemen’s Row by Theis and Khan.

RIBA Stirling judges will visit all the buildings in the coming weeks and the winner will be announced on the 2 October.

Bookmakers William Hill is offering odds on the shortlist, with the MAXXI Museum as (1/1) favourite.