RIBA Lubetkin Prize Shortlist Announced

Beijing Capital International Airport Terminal 3 by Foster and Partners; The National Stadium, Beijing by Herzog and de Meuron; Watercube, National Swimming Centre, Beijing by PTW Architects; Museum Brandhorst, Munich by sauerbruch hutton; Sean O’Casey Community Centre, Dublin by O’Donnell and Tuomey; and The British High Commission, Colombo, Sri Lanka, by Richard Murphy Architects are the six contenders for the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) prestigious Lubetkin Prize, supported by The Architectural Review, for the best international building by an RIBA member.

The Lubetkin Prize is named in honor of the Georgia-born architect, who worked in Paris before coming to London in the 1930s to establish the influential Tecton Group. It is awarded for the most outstanding building outside the EU by an RIBA member and is chosen from winners of RIBA International Awards following visits by a jury of architects and a lay judge.

The presentation of the RIBA Lubetkin Prize will take place on the evening of Tuesday 14 July 2009 at a reception in Durbar Court, the splendid covered courtyard at the heart of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. The RIBA International Awards and RIBA Awards in the European Union will also be presented that evening.

The full list of 15 RIBA International Award winners, from which the Lubetkin Prize shortlist has been selected, is:

1.  Beijing Capital International Airport Terminal 3 by Foster and Partners with NACO, the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design and Arup.

2.  Beijing Station by Farrells with Third Railway Survey and Design Institute Group Corporation

3.  Maosi Ecological Demonstration Primary School, Quingyang City, China, by the Department of Architecture, the Chinese University of Hong

4.  The National Stadium, Beijing, by Herzog and de Meuron with the China Architectural Design and research Group, Arup Sport and Ove Arup and Partners Hong Kong

5.  Ninetree Village in Zhejiang, China, by David Chipperfield Architects with Zhejiang South Architectural Services Design

6.  Watercube, National Swimming Centre, Beijing by PTW Architects, Sydney with the China State Construction & Engineering Corporation, China State Construction Design International and Arup

7.  Saxo Bank, Copenhagen by 3XN for Carlsberg A/S Ejendomme

8.  Museum Brandhorst, Munich by sauerbruch hutton

9.  Alto Vetro Residential Tower, Dublin by Shay Cleary Architects

10.  Sean O’Casey Community Centre, Dublin by O’Donnell and Tuomey

11.  European Investment Bank in Luxembourg City by Ingenhoven Architects

12.  The British High Commission, Colombo, Sri Lanka, by Richard Murphy Architects with Milroy Perera

13.  Cocoon - Exclusive Office Headquarters, Zurich, by Camenzind Evolution

14.  Ching Fu Shipbuilding, Kaohsiung, Taiwan by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, with HOYA Architects

15.  Northern Arizona University, Advanced Research and Development Facility, Flagstaff, Arizona by Hopkins Architects with Burns-Wald Hopkins Architects

Sunand Prasad, RIBA President, said: “The RIBA Lubetkin Prize has been building up in its first four years towards the extraordinary shortlist we see today.  Contenders for the 2009 Prize include some of the biggest projects in the world – and how good it is to be able to mark the British contribution in such schemes - but also some beautifully crafted and lower cost schemes of an equal architectural ambition.  As judges we have an tough job to pick a winner.  The shortlist has undoubtedly been enhanced by the addition of a couple of those projects that once would have got away: those by European RIBA members building in European countries other than the UK.  I am delighted we are partnering this year with UK Trade and Investment to demonstrate the importance of British architecture in an international context.”

The RIBA International Awards are for practices based outside the UK, building anywhere outside the UK; or for British based practices working outside the EU.

The six shortlisted buildings have been visited by Sunand Prasad, RIBA President, Paul Monaghan, Chair of the RIBA Awards Group and Tony Chapman, RIBA Head of Awards. They will report to the full jury which includes architect Farshid Moussavi and Tom Dyckhoff of The Times. Berthold Lubetkin’s daughter Sasha will present the winner of the Lubetkin Prize with a unique bronze plaque, based loosely on Lubetkin’s design for the Penguin Pool at London Zoo. It has been commissioned by the RIBA and designed and made by the artist Petr Weigl.