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Stirling Prize 2025
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Six projects were shortlisted for the Stirling Prize 2025. We featured the winner last week. Now we take a look at the other five contenders.
The projects considered included the restoration of one of the UK's most recognisable landmarks, to a pioneering new medical research facility, a contemporary almshouse (Applebury Blue which took the top prize) designed to reduce isolation for older residents, a university’s 'factory for fashion', a fully accessible home and a creative house extension. All exemplify excellence in architecture.
Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects
An inventive home extension: Instead of demolishing an ageing hillside home, Hastings House reuses and celebrates the existing structure and materials to create a house of contrasts. A restrained, updated Victorian front gives way to a modern, timber framed rear, while a rough concrete courtyard celebrates its industrial character. A series of stitched extensions step up the hillside, blending inside and outside to cleverly create light-filled, open spaces. The result goes beyond a house extension, transforming the entire home and producing a lesson in restrained, inventive reuse.
London College of Fashion by Allies and Morrison
A vertical campus for creativity: Located in the cultural heart of the Queen Elizabeth Park in Stratford, the new home for the London College of Fashion brings together its 6,000 staff and students for the first time. A constrained site prompted a vertical campus rising to 17 storeys, with dramatic staircases unfurling through a shared ‘heart space’ to encourage collaboration. A restrained palette of materials allows the building to act as a canvas for its occupants, while long sightlines and flexible workspaces promote adaptability. Subtle nods to the area’s industrial history create the feeling of a thriving factory for fashion.
Niwa House by Takero Shimazaki Architects
A blueprint for accessible housing: Meaning ‘Garden Home’ in Japanese, Niwa House is a pavilion-like oasis built on a previously derelict South London plot. Sprawling across and downwards to navigate planning constraints, this horizontal home is a masterclass in craftsmanship and restraint. Subtle interventions, such as a flowing open-plan layout and integrated accessibility features create a seamless experience for its wheelchair-user resident while futureproofing it for later life, demonstrating how inclusive design can be functional yet elegant. A hybrid timber and stone structure, paired with floor to ceiling windows, bathe each room in light, while a courtyard garden rising through both floors underlines the serene sense of escapism.
The Discovery Centre (DISC) by Herzog and de Meuron
A civic laboratory: AstraZeneca’s Discovery Centre radically redefines the research facility, blending cutting-edge laboratories with welcoming public spaces. The surprisingly low-rise, sawtooth-roofed building adopts a curved triangular plan, forming an inviting interface for Cambridge’s Biomedical Cluster. At its heart, a publicly accessible courtyard echoes the city's iconic college quadrangles, one of the buildings many tributes to Cambridge’s heritage. Inside, 16 glass-lined laboratories are connected by clever interconnecting corridors that balance stringent security with transparency, putting science on display. Flexible lab stations and open-plan layouts foster innovation in a bold new prototype for research facilities.
Elizabeth Tower by Purcell
Preservation of a national monument: Housing the symbolic Big Ben bell – the timepiece of the nation, the most comprehensive restoration of Elizabeth Tower in 160 years is a conservation masterpiece. Traditional materials and bespoke craftspeople were sourced from across the UK to honour the Tower’s original design, rectifying previous restoration missteps and repairing newly uncovered damage from the Second World War. Careful details, such as reinstating the Victorian colour scheme on the clock faces and reintroducing the St George’s Cross, return the tower to its former glory. Subtle improvements to accessibility, including a new visitor lift, have also opened up the monument to a broader audience for the first time.
RIBA President, Chris Williamson, said:
“These projects demonstrate architecture’s unique ability to address some of the most urgent challenges of our time, responding with creativity, adaptability and care. From a monumental civic building that champions investment in arts and culture, to the sensitive restoration of one the nation’s most iconic landmarks, and a cutting-edge medical research facility, each offers a blueprint for how architecture can enrich society.
“At a time when quality housing is urgently needed across the country, the residential projects stand out for their inventive, human-centred design, from social housing that combats isolation in later life, to a bold home extension that celebrates reuse, and an accessible home that proves that beauty and accessibility can coexist.
“Together, these projects offer a hopeful vision for the future, one where architecture strengthens communities and helps shape a more sustainable and inclusive built environment.”
Pictures: The runners-up in this year’s Stirling Prize.
www.riba.org/explore/awards/uk-awards/stirling-prize
Article written by Cathryn Ellis
26th October 2025