Heneghan Peng’s University of Greenwich makes Stirling shortlist

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The shortlist for the prestigious 2015 RIBA Stirling Prize for the UK’s best new building, now in its 20th year, has been announced. The six shortlisted buildings will now go head-to-head for architecture’s highest accolade, to be awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architectson Thursday 15 October 2015.

Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects have made the list for their recently completed building at the University of Greenwich. At the University of Greenwich, the new library, architecture and landscape school is a glamorous and flexible space – designed to live harmoniously with its community who can enter the generous gallery, shop and cafe.

The 2015 RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist also features the bold and characterful Burntwood School by Alfred Hall Monaghan Morris; a confident and highly-crafted new affordable housing development at Darbishire Place in east London by Niall McLaughlin Architects; the modest and calm Maggie’s cancer care centre in Lanarkshire by Reiach and Hall; the structurally-impressive luxury housing towers at NEO Bankside on London’s south bank by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; and the highly-original extension and refurbishment of The Whitworth art gallery in Manchester by MUMA.

The shortlist features projects by previous RIBA Stirling Prize winners Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (Barajas Airport, 2006 (RRP); Maggie’s cancer care centre, London, 2009) – the Richard Rogers Partnership has previously been shortlisted four times (88 Wood Street, 2000; Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 2002; The Senedd, 2006). AHMM has previously been shortlisted (Westminster Academy, 2008; The Angel Building, 2011), as have Niall McLaughlin Architects (Bishop Edward King Chapel, 2013) and Heneghan Peng Architects (Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre, 2013), This is the first year MUMA and Reiach and Hall Architects have been shortlisted for the prize.

Speaking about the shortlist RIBA President Stephen Hodder, the first ever winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize (for the Centenary Building at the University of Salford, 1996), said: “Every one of the six shortlisted buildings illustrates why great architecture is so valuable. It has the power to delight, inspire and comfort us at all stages of our lives; to improve a student’s potential to learn, to provide a family with a decent home, and to create a sensitive and uplifting healthcare environment. In the shortlist we have six model buildings that will immeasurably improve the lives and wellbeing of all those who encounter them.

The 2015 RIBA Stirling Prize jury, who will visit the six shortlisted buildings and select the winner on 15 October, is chaired by Jane Duncan (RIBA President, from 1 Sept 2015), with architects Peter Clegg and Steve Tompkins; and Dame Theresa Sackler, arts philanthropist.