Stirling Prize

Over the past few years my site visits have taken me to this site below, a small mixed use development in Shoreditch on the corner of Bateman's Row and French Place. When site visiting the finished development it came across as a well built, mixed use scheme with good cladding and a good mix of materials as well as variation in the fenestration which made it pleasing on the eye, but nothing too 'special'. Well, the project has now been shortlisted on the Stirling Prize, arguably the most prestigious architectural award in the UK, which shows just how much I know! Along with that in the past year it has also been awarded with the 'RIBA London Building of the Year 2010' as well as 'Mixed Use Regeneration Development' at The Daily Telegraph British Homes Awards 2010.

The building was designed Theis & Khan Architects, a married couple; Patrick Theis and Soraya Khan which now houses their practice as well as their home. The 200sqm two-storey industrial building they bought in 2000 was granted permission in 2007 for 400sqm of B1 space and 4 residential units.

The first floor is used for their architectural practice with the residential unit on second, third and fourth floor as their family home. A second commercial unit on ground and basement is now an art gallery. There are two further studio flats and a one-bedroom flat within the development.

Incidentally other nominations for the Stirling Prize include three museums and two schools. The museums include Zaha Hadid's MAXXI; the 'National Museum of XXI Century Arts' in Rome, David Chipperfield Architects with Julian Harrap Architects 'Neues Museum' in Berlin and Rick Mather Architects 'Ashmolean Museum' in Oxford, the oldest museum in Britain.

The two schools nominated are DSDHA's Christ College Secondary School in Guildford and dRMM's Clapham Manor School in south London.