Millennium Wing, National Gallery of Ireland, has made it into the final seven

well deserved.

Yes, indeed. And Bucholz McEvoy's Fingal County Offices have been shortlisted for the RIBA Journal Sustainability Award, one of several special award categories that will be decided on the same night. http://www.ajplus.co.uk/riba2002/special_shortlist/

The William D. Finlay Lecture is presented this year by Gordon Benson (Benson + Forsyth) on Tuesday 12 November (7pm). As architect of the Millennium Wing, he will discuss its antecedents, its design and construction. Tickets are on sale from 1 November in the Gallery Shop.

So any thoughts on the shortlist?

Poll: Which building should win the 2002 Stirling Prize?
http://www.archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?s=&postid=7900#post7900

There was a tiny picture of the Lloyd's Register of Shipping in yesterdays Times. It looks wonderful.
Are there any better pics online?

Do you mean better as in more fantastic or better as in bigger? I haven't seen a pic like that in a while...

You'll find the Lloyd's Register and all the others at:

http://www.ajplus.co.uk/riba2002

But remember: shiny buildings always look brilliant in photographs, particularly at dusk-time: the high-tech architect's favourite time of day for pictures. In reality they can let you down (though to be fair, Rogers' generally don't).

Let me put in a word for a non-shiny building on the shortlist: the Downland Gridshell by Edward Cullinan architects. Went there the other day and it is simply brilliant. Photos don't do it justice because it does not catch the light...


....there's a whole thesis to be written on how architectural styles catch on through their camera-friendliness or otherwise. Glossy architecture is much favoured by glossy magazine editors. Matt-finish architecture tends to get ignored.

I agree with RSJ, the Lloyd's Register of Shipping photographs extremely well but I also quite like the design. What is the Downland Gridshell used for?

Downland gridshell is a workshop and store for the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum near Chichester in Sussex - one of those places that rescues mostly medieval derelict timber-framed buildings from around southern England and re-erects them in reasonably authentic manner in open country.

They wanted a modern building for their workshops (where the rescued buildings are first test-assembled) and clear-span space. But they also wanted a link with timber craftsmanship. Hence the Gridshell solution, which is a neat way of reconciling modernity with history.

After all, they could have flung up a standard tin shed for this purpose, but elected not to.

Downland gridshell is very interesting looking, okay. What kind of an impact do you get on entering?

One of those buildings that's bigger than you expect on the inside. A bit like a hangar by Pier Luigi Nervi, a bit like being in some kind of upturned boat hull (same thing, really). Surprisingly delicate structure, very slender timber members, but no precious details - all absolutely functional. It creaks as it warms up and cools down in the sun.

I'd say its internal impact is a bit like those huge medieval tithe barns - except in this case there are no columns or roof beams or wall/roof junctions.

The wiggly shape - bit like a giant monkey-nut from the outside - provides lateral bracing for the structure.

Engineers are Buro Happold, and the gridshell structure goes back to their work years ago with Frei Otto. This is the sort of structural expertise and computer power more normally used by the likes of Norman Foster or Richard Rogers. All for a rural workshop...

the online poll run by the Architects' Journal shows (as at lunchtime today) Cullinan's Downland Gridshell moving into the popular lead at 31.18 per cent. Closest rival is Dublin's Millenium Wing of National Gall at 28 per cent.

Trailing the field is Rogers' Lloyd's Register at a surprisingly awful 1.63 per cent.

Here it is:

Gateshead Millennium Bridge - 35.33%
Downland Gridshell - 13.04%
Lloyd's Register of Shipping - 19.02%
Hampden Gurney School - 10.33%
Dance Base, Edinburgh - 8.70%
Ernsting Service Centre - 1.63%
Millennium Wing, National Gallery of Ireland - 11.96%

Isn't that a different poll?

That's the results from here, I think.

Ah yes, so it is. The AJ's poll will be almost all architects, so this will reflect the esteem in which Cullinan, very much an architect's architect, is held in the profession.

On the night, of course, it's down to the judges rather than poll findings. The judges are as usual a very urban lot, but you never know. This is one of the closer Stirling years, with no overwhelming favourite.

Can't seem to find anything on the TV listings (for the 12th October) on this. Is it been covered as part of Channel 4s Art Show @ 18.35 tomorrow ?

Stirling Prize takes place at the Baltic in Gateshead tomorrow night, Saturday October 12. But because of Channel 4's nervousness about live outside broadcast events (they're not used to them, the dears) it is not broadcast until 8pm on the evening of Sunday 13th, although it pretends to be live then.

This is why news of the Prize winner mysteriously tends to appear in the Sunday papers the morning before it allegedly takes place. All a bit silly, really.

Okay.... so are you going Hugh?

Um yes, I'll be there. Lurking.

Damn I knew I should have got Archeire.com tshirts done ;)

By all accounts the Gateshead Bridge is the firm favourite for the Sterling Architectural Ist prize although to me the bridge is really a marvelous civil engineering achievement / statement along with the likes of the London Eye.

Did anyone watch the proigramme on C4 on saturday night? Charlie Luxton? the architecture world's Jamie Oliver... even has the hand mannerisms....

Well no major suprise in the Stirling... when you watched the programme there was no contest as far as i was concerned... the only real challenger was the 21st century barn....

the Dance centre in Edinburgh was a series of interiors or so it looked.... the NGI was described accurately as all entrance and restaurant.... the rogers building looked very reminiscent of their entry last year or the year before ..... and as for the office park in Germany, it just resembled an american college campus...

Presenter annoyed the hell out of me I have to admit
Wilkinson eyre were worthy winners

The main presenter was a bit irritating okay - he's The Sunday Times art critic - Waldemar Sommat. And that Hugh Pearman bloke was very no-nonsense wasn't he. ;)

Just heard from a friend of mine who tried to watch it and gave up as Wald was annoying his head too much.

Wilkinson Eyre's Gateshead Millennium Bridge has won the 2002 Stirling Prize for architecture. There were rumblings of dissatisfaction over this on the night - is it architecture or is it engineering? Should the same practice win the Prize two years in a row (they won last year with their Magna Centre in Rotherham)?

Its not so much as the bridge shouldnt have won... its more that they shouldnt have won last year for the Magna centre which was exhibition design as far as I'm concerned...

Right, so it's the Wilkinson Eyre bridge wot won it.

Pictures to be seen at:

http://www.hughpearman.com/articles4/thatbridge.html

It encloses space, therefore it must be a building.

Looks like a Calatrava job

to answer the question on the site, the bridge is obviously a combination of both architecture & engineering ...

Agreed. Most structural engineers I know dislike it because of what they see as the profligacy of the design. Left to themselves they would never make such a meal out of such a short river crossing. So there you see the hand of the architect.

However it is seen as less structurally overblown than Calatrava's works - which is a compliment, from an engineer.

Chipperfield A tender loser?

Chipperfield slams ‘secretive’ Stirling Prize judging



David Chipperfield has called for a review of the voting system for the Stirling Prize and an end to the use of a secret ballot.

Chipperfield criticised the judges’ decision-making process, claiming it has led to a lack of clear thinking behind the choice of this year’s winner. In the final round of judging, the panel of five voted in secret for their favourite scheme. But Chipperfield – who serves on a number of juries and was on the Stirling shortlist for his Ernstings Service Centre – told the AJ he was ‘shocked’ when he learnt the judges had not reached a consensus.

‘It should be a group decision, because what comes out of a group decision is the dynamics of debate. It’s fundamental to prize-giving,’ he said. ‘The result was that no one could describe why the winner was chosen. No one explained the extraordinary decision to award the prize to a bridge.

‘When you give a prize for a single building there should be a clear idea of what the architecture is all about,’ he said, adding that the ceremony lacked any cultural content. ‘I didn’t hear one mention of James Stirling. No one talked about architecture. We were all just props for the final scene of a television programme.’

Will Alsop, who won with his Peckham Library in 2000, criticised the inclusion of lay-persons on the jury. Alsop, who failed to pick up even one of the RIBA Awards this year, said he would be bowing out of the competition for the next few years.

Other observers also questioned the validity of giving the prize to a bridge rather than a building. Maxwell Hutchinson, ex-RIBA president and broadcaster, said the Stirling organisers should decide whether the competition was for buildings or works of engineering.

‘A valid entry should have a sewer connection,’ he said. ‘If you look at all the complex issues that go into a building, even the most humble building, few apply to a bridge.’

However, RIBA president Paul Hyett defended the decision to keep the judging anonymous, claiming it led to honesty and avoided the bitter acrimony that can follow the judging of prizes. He also defended the winning choice as an architect-designed project. Hyett added: ‘The prize is central to the RIBA’s work to get more people interested in architecture in order to improve people’s lives.