RIBA STIRLING PRIZE 2006

Exhibition: Monday 4 December – Sunday 21 January 2007

An airport, a children's hospital and a private house were among the six buildings on this year’s shortlist for The RIBA Stirling Prize in association with The Architects’ Journal. The RIBA Stirling Prize is the UK’s most prestigious architectural prize and is awarded annually to the architects of the building which has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year (the building may be anywhere in the European Union).

Barajas Airport in Madrid, designed by Richard Rogers Partnership, won the 11th RIBA Stirling Prize and the £20,000 prize money. Barajas Airport beat off competition from five other outstanding contenders, selected from this year's RIBA award winning buildings: Brick House, London - Caruso St John Architects; Evelina Children’s Hospital, London - Hopkins Architects; Idea Store, Whitechapel, London – Adjaye/Associates; National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff - Richard Rogers Partnership; Phaeno Science Centre, Wolfsburg, Germany - Zaha Hadid Architects and Mayer Bährle Freie Architekten BDA, Germany.

This is the first time a Richard Rogers Partnership building has won the prize. Of the 760 million square metre £1,238 million Barajas Airport, the judges commented: “Whatever the means of approach, by air or by land, the sheer scale and complexity of what has been tackled and achieved here cannot be over-estimated. In response to the key challenge: that of efficiently processing constantly changing passenger flows and associated luggage handling, the resulting building presents a straightforward linear diagram in the form of a clear sequence of spectacular spaces for both departing and arriving passengers."

All six schemes will be exhibited at The Architecture Centre, providing a rare opportunity to view the cream of British architecture.

Barajas Airport image: Manuel Renau

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