As in the previous year, the crisis presented the jury of the award, chaired by RIBA President Ruth Reed, with a difficult task: due to the slowdown in construction, buildings of a completely different order claim to win, which are difficult to compare, and sometimes even inappropriate.
Prize favorites - Zaha Hadid's Roman MAXXI Museum in Rome, as well as David Chipperfield's brilliantly reconstructed New Museum in Berlin and Rick Mather's Ashmolean Museum in Oxford belong to the era of belief in the Bilbao Effect (ironically the end of this era, for the first time there are so many museums on the shortlist: they made up half of it).
Two educational institutions compete with them - Clapham Manor Elementary School in London by dRMM workshop and Christ's College High School in Guildford by DSDHA bureau. This is a completely different type of structure, much more modest and practical, erected as part of the state program for the construction of schools for quality projects Building Schools for the Future. This program was closed in early July 2010 by the coalition government to save budget funds; according to some estimates, this will leave about 700 projects currently in development on paper. Thus, this is also a kind of "swan song" of the time of prosperity: there are two schools on the short list for the first time.
The last nominee is a small mixed-use complex Bateman's Row, built by architects Patrick Theis and Soraya Khan (Theis and Khan Architects) for themselves - they also acted as developers. The complex included their own dwelling, workshop premises, gallery and four apartments.
The 2010 Royal Institute of British Architects Sterling Award for the best building of the year built or designed in the UK is presented for the 15th time. She has a cash prize of £ 20,000 and is a permanent sponsor of The Architects' Journal. The shortlist for the award is selected from among the buildings within the EU that have received the annual RIBA awards. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held in London on October 2, 2010.
