Riba Stirling Prize 2014: London loses out to Liverpool as The Shard, London Aquatics Centre and LSE’s Saw Swee Hock Student Centre fail to win top architecture award
Three of London’s most exciting new buildings have lost out on winning the biggest prize in British architecture.
The Riba Stirling Prize, architecture’s most prestigious award, has been scooped by the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, trumping The Shard, The London Aquatics Centre and the London School of Economics’ Saw Swee Hock Student Centre in the capital.
Despite the city being over-represented on the prize shortlist, accounting for half of the six shortlisted buildings, Everyman showed the best design excellence and the most significant evolution in architecture and the built environment, the judges said.
The Shard, verging on iconic after changing the London skyline and becoming the tallest building in London, failed to impress the judges.
(Source: Michel Denance)
Neither did one of the buildings at the centre of the London 2012 Olympic Games- the Zaha Hadid designed London Aquatics Centre.
(Source: Hufton + Crow)
The third London building in the running was a new addition to the London School of Economics. The Saw Swee Hock Student Centre’s sharp angles poking out in between London’s existing sprawl of buildings failed to grab the judges attention.
(Source: Alex Bland)