by Brianna Crandall — November 9, 2012—The Sainsbury Laboratory, a major new plant science research center at the University of Cambridge by architects Stanton Williams, has won the coveted Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize 2012 for the best building of the year. Now in its 17th year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is considered the United Kingdom’s most prestigious architecture prize, awarded to the architects of the best new European building built or designed in the U.K. Stanton Williams architects received £20,000, and will display the RIBA Stirling Prize trophy for a year.
This is the first time that Stanton Williams has won or been shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize, notes RIBA. With the Sainsbury Laboratory, the firm has achieved world-class architecture for world-class science, adds the organization. Set within the University of Cambridge Botanic Gardens, the low-rise, grandly colonnaded stone-and-glass building is carefully designed to complement its historical Grade II-listed garden setting. According to the judges, the architects created an exceptionally stimulating work environment, reinterpreting the tradition of the monastic cloister and collegiate court to create spaces for reflection, debate and collaboration among scientists.
The RIBA Stirling Prize judges called the laboratory “a timeless piece of architecture, sitting within a highly sensitive site,” and “both highly particular and specialized, and at the same time a universal building type, taken to an extraordinary degree of sophistication and beauty.” According to the judges, the building needed to balance openness to the public with strict requirements for security. To accomplish this, the architects situated a public-accessible lecture theatre, meeting rooms and garden café on the ground level, and placed the laboratories and private meeting places on the upper level
The architects achieved sustainability through flexibility in long-term use through an adaptable façade that enables the research spaces to grow and change as required by the scientists. Despite the typical high energy demands of laboratories, the building has achieved a BREEAM excellent rating, aided by 1,000 square meters of photovoltaic panels and extensive natural lighting even in the laboratories. The L-shaped arrangement of the labs encourages interaction between scientists.
The Sainsbury Laboratory was chosen by the judges from the following outstanding shortlisted entries:
- The Hepworth Wakefield contemporary art museum by David Chipperfield Architects
- London Olympic Stadium by Populous
- The Lyric Theatre by O’Donnell + Tuomey
- Maggie’s Centre for cancer care, Gartnavel, Glasgow by OMA
- New Court, Rothschild’s London headquarters, by OMA with Allies and Morrison
The winners of the RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the best international building and three Special Awards were also announced:
- Guangzhou International Finance Centre in China by Wilkinson Eyre Architects, the tallest building in the world by a U.K. architect, won the RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the most outstanding work of international architecture outside the E.U. by a member of RIBA.
- Maison L, a highly innovative house on the outskirts of Paris, by architectures possibles won the RIBA Manser Medal for the best newly designed private house.
- Kings Grove, an immaculate new house in southeast London by Duggan Morris Architects won RIBA’s 2012 Stephen Lawrence Prize. Set up in memory of Stephen Lawrence who was studying to be an architect when he was murdered in 1993 and funded by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation, the prize rewards the best project with a construction budget of less than £1 million and is intended to encourage fresh talent working with smaller budgets.
- The Olympic Delivery Authority and LOCOG won the 2012 RIBA Client of the Year supported by the Bloxham Trust. The award recognizes the role good clients play in the delivery of fine architecture.
