Both the award jury and commentators emphasize that this year's award not only recognizes the outstanding qualities of the "laureate" building, but also demonstrates the position of British architects on the schools Building for the Future program, closed in 2010 by the Conservative government., BSF). Having replaced the Laborites in power, they considered that the quality of the architecture surrounding the students did not matter, and the program was only wasting budget funds. This position, despite the rational grain (the BSF procurement scheme was really "wasteful"), angered the architects, but they could not influence the authorities.
The Burntwood School project by AHMM (Allford Hall Monaghan Morris) is linked to the idea of the public good as the goal of the architect's work and its expression through quality public school designs, also because it is an extension of the school campus of the 1950s - 1960s, a period when in Britain, high-quality public buildings and housing were massively built on projects by civil service architects. In this case, we are talking about the work of Leslie Martin, the author of the Royal Festival Hall, and other architects of the London County Council.
AHMM has continued its 50-year-old line by offering new buildings for Burntwood schoolgirls with concrete facades, where plastic "slopes" surround asymmetric window openings. On the outside, black and gray colors are complemented by colored tiles, on the inside, there are paintings by artist Morag Myerscough, who regularly collaborates with AHMM. The interior features two- and three-light spaces filled with sun, where students can study on their own or take a break between classes. Also at their service is a campus that has received a new landscape design. In total, six educational buildings, a performing arts center and a sports complex were erected: they are located between buildings of the middle of the last century, and during the construction the work of the school with 2,000 students and 200 employees was not interrupted for a day.
With a total area of 21,405 m2, the project budget was 40.9 million pounds. For the sake of economy, the aforementioned facade panels were prefabricated, and typical bus stops were used to construct the central alley overlap on thin pillars that echoed the 1950s buildings.
The architects and customers, the staff of the Burntwood School, were very pleased with each other. AHMM involved educators in the design decision-making process, and the school principal and her colleagues understood both the style of campus buildings and the importance of good architecture for effective teaching.
AHMM is a large firm known, among other things, for its quality school projects: over the past decade, it has completed eight school buildings. This is the first Sterling Prize she has received, but in recent years AHMM has been nominated for it three times.
The Stirling Prize, awarded for the best building of the year by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), has been awarded since 1996. This time, five of the six buildings included
in its short list, were quite socially useful, but the sixth was the elite residential complex NEO Bankside by Richard Rogers, during the construction of which, according to many, the rules for the distribution of affordable and expensive housing in London were violated. As a result, during the ceremony, architects protesting against the award of such a project even picketed the RIBA headquarters (their claims can be found here), while the institute itself, explaining the inclusion of this object in the number of finalists of the award, referred to the ambiguity of the regulations. The developer Native Land does not admit guilt at all.
In anticipation of the announcement of the winner, the BBC media company conducted a vote on its website for the best construction from the Sterling Prize shortlist. The expansion of the art gallery The Whitworth of the University of Manchester by MUMA (perhaps the most spectacular "finalist") won by a wide margin: 38% voted for it. The second was Maggie's Cancer Center in Lanarkshire, Scotland Reiach and Hall Architects.
The winners of two other RIBA awards were also announced. The Royal National Theater was honored as Customer of the Year for the renovation of its famous Brutalist building designed by Denis Lasden. Architects, in this case Haworth Tompkins (also handled by Stanton Williams), are nominated for this client award.
The Stephen Lawrence Award went to Niall McLaughlin Architects for Fishing Hut, a "fishing hut" in Hampshire. The award recognizes emerging architects for projects with budgets under £ 1 million.
