RIBA unveils star-studded longlist for world's best new building
RIBA International Prize: David Chipperfield, Bjarke Ingels, Vo Trong Nghia and the late Zaha Hadid are among the architects whose buildings are included on the 30-strong longlist for the first RIBA International Prize (+ slideshow).
Revealed today by the Royal Institute of British Architects, the longlist of buildings vying to be named the "most significant and inspirational building of the year" spans private houses, major cultural institutions, offices, hotels, civic structures, and places of worship.
Dezeen is media partner for the RIBA International Prize, which is open to buildings of any type, size and budget by any qualified architect in any country if they have been completed in the past three years.
Zaha Hadid, who died suddenly in March, has two projects on the list – the Jockey Club Innovation Tower, which is Hong Kong Polytechnic University's design school, and the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan, which was the London Design Museum's Design of the Year in 2014 despite attracting controversy over the human rights record of the country.
Months before her death, Hadid became the first woman to be awarded the RIBA's Royal Gold Medal in her own right.
British architect David Chipperfield has three buildings on the list: his office building on Moganshang Road in Hangzhou, China, which features an all-copper facade; the Museuo Jumex in Mexico – a saw-topped stone gallery that is home to the largest private art collection in Latin America; and the polished concrete and glass Saint Louis Art Museum extension in America, designed with HOK.
Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia is included for his knot-shaped Farming Kindergarten in Dong Nai, just outside Ho Chi Min City, which has vegetable gardens on top to help children learn how to grow their own food.
Other longlisted projects include the Via housing "courtscraper" in New York by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels' firm BIG, and the Parkroyal on Pickering hotel in Singapore by local studio WOHA, which features balconies covered in tropical plants and contoured surfaces based on rock formations.
The Sancaklar Mosque near Istanbul, designed by Turkish firm Emre Arolat Architects with cast concrete walls and a "cave-like" prayer hall, is among the religious buildings on the list.
The monumental Ring of Remembrance, a 328-metre oval-shaped loop designed by Parisian architect Philippe Prost to be "the colour of war", which marks the site of one of the world's largest French military cemeteries and was built to commemorate the centenary of the first world war, is also included.
The longlist will be narrowed down to 20 in a further round of judging, and each will receive an award for International Excellence. A final shortlist of six for the International Prize will then be chosen this autumn.
The grand jury, chaired by British architect Richard Rogers, will visit all of the shortlisted buildings before selecting an overall winner, which will be announced in December 2016.
"The winning building will demonstrate visionary, innovative thinking and excellence of execution, whilst making a distinct contribution to its users and to its physical context," said the RIBA.
The jury also includes Billie Tsien, founding partner of US firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien; Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi, founder of Amsterdam-based NLÉ; UK architect Philip Gumuchdjian of Gumuchdjian Architects; and Marilyn Jordan Taylor, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design.
The international prize replaces the RIBA's Lubetkin Prize, which was awarded annually to an RIBA member architect for a building outside of the European Union alongside the Stirling Prize, the most prestigious UK architecture award.
International Prize-longlisted Irish architects O'Donnell and Tuomey – recipients of the 2015 RIBA Royal Gold Medal – have been repeatedly shortlisted for the Stirling Prize but have yet to win it.
The International Prize is part of a wider revamp of the RIBA's annual awards programme, which last year saw the former Manser Medal award for one-off house rebranded as House of the Year, with the shortlist and winner broadcast in a TV series.
There is currently only one other high-profile international prize for a single building – the World Architecture Festival's World Building of the Year.
It was won last year by The Interlace in Singapore by Ole Scheeren, a "vertical village" made up of a series of apartment blocks diagonally stacked in a honeycomb arrangement.
Here's the full RIBA International Prize shortlist:
Angdong Hospital, Baojing County, China, by Rural Urban Framework
Arquipelago Contemporary Arts Centre, Ribeira Grande, The Azores, by Menos é Mais Arquitectos Associados and João Mendes Ribeiro Arquitecto
Buenos Aires Ciudad Casa de Gobierno, Buenos Aires, Argentina, by Foster + Partners, Berdichevsky Cherny Arquitectos and StudioMinond
Culture House Rozet, Arnhem, Netherlands, by Neutelings Riedijk Architects
DLR Lexicon Dún Laoghaire Co, Dublin, Ireland, by Carr Cotter Naessens
Europaallee Baufeld E, Zurich, Switzerland, by Caruso St John Architects and Bosshard Vaquer Architekten
European Hansemuseum Lübeck, Germany, by Studio Andreas Heller Architects & Designers
Farming Kindergarten, Bien Hoa City, Vietnam, by Vo Trong Nghia Architects
Fine Arts Museum of Asturias, Oviedo, Spain, by Mangado y Asociados
Fulton Center New York, USA, by Grimshaw, HDR and Page Ayres Cowley Architects
Heydar Aliyev Centre Baku, Azerbaijan, by Zaha Hadid Architects and DiA Holding
Invisible House, Hampton, Australia, by Peter Stutchbury Architecture
Jockey Club Innovation Tower, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, by Zaha Hadid Architects
Office Building Moganshan Road, Hangshou, China, by David Chipperfield Architects
Oita Prefecture Art Museum, Oita, Japan, by Shigeru Ban Architects
PARKROYAL on Pickering, Singapore, by WOHA Architects
Public Library of Constitucion, Constitucion, Chile, by Sebastian Irarrazaval Arquitectos
Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, Doha, Qatar, by Mangera Yvars Architects
Rundeskogen Stravanger, Norway, by dRMM Architects and Helen and Hard Architects
Saint Louis Art Museum, St Louis, USA, David Chipperfield Architects and HOK
Saint Trinitatis Catholic Church, Leipzig, Germany, by Schulz und Schulz
Sancaklar Mosque Büyükçekmece, Istanbul, Turkey, by EAAEmre Arolat Architecture
SkyTerrace Soo Khian Chan, Singapore, by SCDA Architects
St Angela's College, Cork, Ireland, by O'Donnell + Tuomey
Stormen Concert Hall, Theatre and Public Library, Bodø, Norway, by DRDH Architects
Tula House Heriot Bay, Quadra Island, Canada, by Patkau Architects
UTEC Universidad de Ingenieria y Tecnologia, Peru, by Lima Grafton Architects and Shell Arquitectos
VIA at West 57th, New York, USA, Bjarke Ingels Group and SLCE Architects
