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Health centres battle for title of best new British building
Aline Nassif23 Jul 2009
Kentish Town Health has been nominated for the RIBA Stirling Prize
Two London health centres are among six buildings shortlisted for a prestigious British architecture award.
The Kentish Town Health Centre and Maggie's Centre, in Hammersmith, will go up against British-designed buildings worldwide for the Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize 2009.
The two-storey, pavilion-style Maggie's Centre, created by Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners, is described as a "quietly confident" haven for cancer patients and as having an "informal" and "positive" atmosphere.
Its entry for the competition to find the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year reads: "The architects have sheltered the centre from its harsh surroundings with a thick and cheerful orange masonry wall that also serves as a backdrop for carefully planted tree groves and gardens. Its positive spirit is signalled with a roof canopy that oversails its many intimate internal gardens and courtyards."
The centres will compete against a museum in Denmark, a mixed-use residential scheme in Liverpool, an "aspirational" wine cooperative in Spain and an 18-storey office building to sit on top of a new "public space" at 5 Aldermanbury Square in the City.
Sunand Prasad, RIBA president, said: "This is a fascinating set of schemes -the judges have a hard but eagerly anticipated decision to make."
This year's jury includes architect Benedetta Tagliabue, Sir John Sorrell, chairman of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, and designer Thomas Heatherwick.
The winner of the competition, run in association with The Architects' Journal and Crystal CG, will be announced at Old Billingsgate on 17 October at a ceremony broadcast live on Channel 4.
