Here’s a rewritten blog post style summary of the Stirling Prize shortlist, stripped down to the key points:
**Stirling Prize Shortlist: A Look at the UK’s Best Building**
This year’s Stirling Prize shortlist has once again raised serious concerns about the perceived bias of London’s architecture awards. Ahead of the winner announcement, the RIBA editors have revisited the shortlist, focusing on the quality of buildings in London and the distinctiveness of the regional distinctions.
The RIBA’s annual awards programme is a thorough examination of the world’s best buildings, with buildings visited by multiple assessors on multiple occasions. This rigorous process ensures that the shortlist is judged based on a comprehensive suite of criteria, including the quality of construction, the design, the overall impact, and the cultural significance of the buildings.
The Stirling Prize shortlist is a unique and competitive landscape, with only five buildings in London currently in the top 30 positions. This highlights the relative scarcity of high-quality buildings in the capital, which is often a source of criticism from critics and those seeking to showcase a wider range of architectural styles.
The RIBA’s decision to select the Stirling Prize shortlist is a significant step in addressing this concern. The shortlist is designed to provide a more diverse and representative selection, making it a more accurate reflection of the UK’s best contemporary architecture. While the overall selection is likely to be a mix of London-centric and regional initiatives, the RIBA is committed to ensuring that the shortlist reflects a broader range of architectural styles and the unique qualities of each region.
The Stirling Prize shortlist is a testament to the RIBA’s dedication to architectural excellence and its commitment to providing a thorough evaluation process for its nominees. It serves as a reminder that the awards are not solely based on the aesthetic appeal of buildings in London, but also on their quality, design, and cultural significance.
This year’s Stirling Prize shortlist has again raised concerns about London bias. Ahead of the winner announcement this week, Dezeen editor Tom Ravenscroft crunches the numbers on whether the award for Britain’s best new building unfairly favours the capital.
With four of the six buildings shortlisted for the 2025 Stirling Prize in London, and the other two within 60 miles of the capital (pictured above), this is the most closely grouped shortlist in history.
The all-south-east shortlist has again raised questions about the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) prize for the UK’s best new building – specifically, claims that it is too London-centric.
“Is there really no noteworthy new architecture north of the Fens?” asked Dezeen columnist Catherine Slessor in the Guardian, while the Times stated that the list “continues a capital-centric approach that attracts annual criticism”.
Of course, concerns of southern bias have been raised before, notably in 2011 when leading Scottish architect Rab Bennetts and the secretary of the Royal Incorporation of Architects Scotland Neil Baxter both told the Scotland on Sunday magazine that the award overlooked Scottish projects.
“None [of the Scottish buildings] are making the Stirling longlist, let alone the shortlist,” said Baxter. “The RIBA is understandably obsessed with its home counties focus. Maybe that’s where most of its members live. Inevitably people will vote for their own.”
But is the Stirling Prize really London-centric? We decided to investigate.
**How is the Stirling Prize shortlist determined?**
The RIBA awards programme is one of the most thorough architecture prizes in the world, with buildings visited by multiple assessors on multiple occasions.
To earn a spot on the Stirling Prize shortlist, projects must go through three stages. To qualify, buildings are first submitted into the RIBA Regional Awards, run by the 13 RIBA affiliated regions, including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In each region, a selection of entrants is shortlisted and then visited by regional juries, with multiple buildings awarded RIBA Regional Awards in each region.
The regional winners are then revisited by the national juries, who select the RIBA National Awards winners from the RIBA Regional Awards winners. They can select as many or as few as they want from each region – there were 20 National Awards winners in 2025.
From these winners a shortlist of six buildings is picked by RIBA’s award selection panel to form the Stirling Prize shortlist. The Stirling Prize jury visits these six buildings and picks a winner.
**Nearly half of Stirling Prize-shortlisted buildings in** **London**
In total, 178 buildings have been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize since it launched in 1996. Of these, 132 – 74 per cent – were in England.
More specifically, 76 Stirling-shortlisted buildings – 43 per cent of the total – are in London.
It is clear that the majority of shortlists have been predominantly English and heavily London-focused.
**How do Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland fare?**
In the award’s 29-year history, only one Scottish building has won – the Scottish Parliament in 2005, while 10 projects in Scotland have been shortlisted. But Scotland is far from the most under-represented region.
Just two Northern Irish projects and a single Welsh project have ever made the shortlist. That lone building was the Senedd parliament building, designed by the London-based Richard Rogers Partnership (now RSHP) in 2006.
Up until 2014, projects designed by RIBA members anywhere in the European Union were eligible for the Stirling Prize. Four winners during that period came from outside the UK – Stuttgart Music School by James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates; Barajas Airport Terminal 4 by RSHP; Museum of Modern Literature by David Chipperfield Architects and MAXXI by Zaha Hadid Architects.
This means that Wales comes a dismal ninth in the country shortlist rankings. It is beaten by, in order, England, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Austria, France and Northern Ireland.
**London’s dominance increasing**
In the past five cycles, 19 out of the 30 buildings shortlisted have been in the capital meaning that, according to the RIBA, almost two-thirds of the UK’s best recent buildings are in London.
The list of winners has been even more London-centric, with only one non-London laureate – the New Library at Magdalene College by Niall McLaughlin Architects – just 60 miles away in Cambridge.
And with bookmaker William Hill making the refurbishment of Elizabeth Tower by Purcell the early favourite to win this year’s award, it looks like this trend is set to continue.
In fact, the phenomenon is becoming more acute. London’s dominance of the UK’s highest architecture accolade has increased dramatically since the Covid-enforced break in 2020.
In the 24 years before Covid, only 38 per cent of shortlisted buildings and 37 per cent of winners were in London.
Since 2020, both these numbers have risen dramatically, with the city accounting for 63 per cent of shortlisted buildings and a whopping 75 per cent of winners.
**Is London overrepresented?**
So, statistically the Stirling Prize is dominated by London, and this has become more pronounced in recent years.
However, determining whether London is unfairly overrepresented is complex. On a simple per-capita basis it would seem that way, as London only constitutes around 13 per cent of the UK’s population.
But high-quality architecture is not evenly distributed. With more money and more cultural institutions, perhaps it’s not surprising that many of the UK’s best buildings are in London.
Writing in UK magazine Building Design, Dezeen columnist Eleanor Jolliffe also highlighted the vast disparity in the amount spent on construction across the UK as a key reason that large numbers of London projects are consistently shortlisted.
“According to the ONS, in 2023 £1.8 billion of construction took place in the North East of England,” she wrote. “In the same period £8.7 billion was spent in London.”
“The contribution of architectural services to the economy from the north east in 2023 was £489 million, London’s contribution was £4.8 billion,” she continued. “While I would like to believe that groundbreaking architecture can be cheap, the reality is that really good buildings are very expensive.”
**Who is designing the Stirling Prize winners?**
Not only is the Stirling Prize dominated by buildings located in London, the studios designing them are also predominantly from the capital.
Of the 28 winning buildings, only five have been designed by non-London-headquartered studios.
Three of those were from outside the UK – Herzog & de Meuron, EMBT and Grafton Architects, leaving Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Hodder + Partners as the only non-London-based UK studios to win the prize.
**What could be done to improve the balance?**
Determining architecture’s quality is, of course, largely subjective, so it is almost impossible to determine if the awards really are biased towards London.
However, the regional imbalance certainly gives the impression that the RIBA believes the majority of the UK’s best architecture is in London.
Luckily, a fairly simple shake-up to the way the Stirling Prize shortlist is determined could shake off the appearance of London bias. The RIBA has a ready-built mechanism that could create a clearer and more geographically broad shortlist.
As described above, currently the shortlist is picked from the RIBA National Award winners, which are in turn picked from the RIBA Regional Award winners in a broadly hierarchical system.
However, as part of the RIBA Regional Awards each of the 13 regions also selects its best project and names it the Building of the Year. These 13 buildings could instead become the Stirling Prize shortlist. Potentially, this list could be announced at the same time as at the National Award winners.
This would ensure that the best architecture from every region competes for the top prize, making it a truly national award. It would draw attention to buildings created outside the capital and showcase a broader range of studios than it currently does.
If it turns out that all of the best buildings actually are all in London, this system would still allow them to win the Stirling Prize. However, the deck would not be stacked with London projects, as there would only be one building from the capital in the final running, rather than four or five.
Last year’s winner, for example, the Elizabeth Line by Grimshaw, Maynard, Equation and AtkinsRéalis, was named RIBA London Building of the Year, so would have still been in the running to win the Stirling Prize.
**What does the RIBA say?**
Dezeen put the figures in this story to the RIBA and asked if it is concerned about London bias. In response, RIBA president Chris Williamson made a similar point to Jolliffe about the level of investment in the capital compared to elsewhere in the UK.
“As with many national award programmes, any regional overrepresentation ultimately reflects the levels of investment across the country,” he said.
“It also reflects London’s status as a global hub, attracting global talent, where competition for innovation remains exceptionally high.”
Asked if the RIBA is planning to address the perceived London bias, Williamson said the awards programme is being “constantly reviewed”.
“While it’s great to see significant national attention on this year’s shortlist, it’s also important to celebrate winners throughout the awards process,” he said.
“Our 116 regional award winners announced earlier this year stretch across the UK, demonstrating the unique strengths and identity of each region.”
“Our awards criteria are constantly reviewed to ensure that they reflect an ever-changing profession,” he continued.
“For example, anyone submitting their project for the 2026 cycle will be required to provide additional sustainability data, as we look to align the awards with the profession’s climate commitments.”
This year’s Stirling Prize shortlist has again raised concerns about London bias. Ahead of the winner announcement this week, Dezeen editor Tom Ravenscroft crunches the numbers on whether the award for Britain’s best new building unfairly favours the capital.
With four of the six buildings shortlisted for the 2025 Stirling Prize in London, and the other two within 60 miles of the capital (pictured above), this is the most closely grouped shortlist in history.
The all-south-east shortlist has again raised questions about the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) prize for the UK’s best new building – specifically, claims that it is too London-centric.
“Is there really no noteworthy new architecture north of the Fens?” asked Dezeen columnist Catherine Slessor in the Guardian, while the Times stated that the list “continues a capital-centric approach that attracts annual criticism”.
Of course, concerns of southern bias have been raised before, notably in 2011 when leading Scottish architect Rab Bennetts and the secretary of the Royal Incorporation of Architects Scotland Neil Baxter both told the Scotland on Sunday magazine that the award overlooked Scottish projects.
“None [of the Scottish buildings] are making the Stirling longlist, let alone the shortlist,” said Baxter. “The RIBA is understandably obsessed with its home counties focus. Maybe that’s where most of its members live. Inevitably people will vote for their own.”
But is the Stirling Prize really London-centric? We decided to investigate.
How is the Stirling Prize shortlist determined?
The RIBA awards programme is one of the most thorough architecture prizes in the world, with buildings visited by multiple assessors on multiple occasions.
To earn a spot on the Stirling Prize shortlist, projects must go through three stages. To qualify, buildings are first submitted into the RIBA Regional Awards, run by the 13 RIBA affiliated regions, including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In each region, a selection of entrants is shortlisted and then visited by regional juries, with multiple buildings awarded RIBA Regional Awards in each region.
The regional winners are then revisited by the national juries, who select the RIBA National Awards winners from the RIBA Regional Awards winners. They can select as many or as few as they want from each region – there were 20 National Awards winners in 2025.
From these winners a shortlist of six buildings is picked by RIBA’s award selection panel to form the Stirling Prize shortlist. The Stirling Prize jury visits these six buildings and picks a winner.
Nearly half of Stirling Prize-shortlisted buildings in London
In total, 178 buildings have been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize since it launched in 1996. Of these, 132 – 74 per cent – were in England.
More specifically, 76 Stirling-shortlisted buildings – 43 per cent of the total – are in London.
It is clear that the majority of shortlists have been predominantly English and heavily London-focused.
How do Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland fare?
In the award’s 29-year history, only one Scottish building has won – the Scottish Parliament in 2005, while 10 projects in Scotland have been shortlisted. But Scotland is far from the most under-represented region.
Just two Northern Irish projects and a single Welsh project have ever made the shortlist. That lone building was the Senedd parliament building, designed by the London-based Richard Rogers Partnership (now RSHP) in 2006.
Up until 2014, projects designed by RIBA members anywhere in the European Union were eligible for the Stirling Prize. Four winners during that period came from outside the UK – Stuttgart Music School by James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates; Barajas Airport Terminal 4 by RSHP; Museum of Modern Literature by David Chipperfield Architects and MAXXI by Zaha Hadid Architects.
This means that Wales comes a dismal ninth in the country shortlist rankings. It is beaten by, in order, England, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Austria, France and Northern Ireland.
London’s dominance increasing
In the past five cycles, 19 out of the 30 buildings shortlisted have been in the capital meaning that, according to the RIBA, almost two-thirds of the UK’s best recent buildings are in London.
The list of winners has been even more London-centric, with only one non-London laureate – the New Library at Magdalene College by Niall McLaughlin Architects – just 60 miles away in Cambridge.
And with bookmaker William Hill making the refurbishment of Elizabeth Tower by Purcell the early favourite to win this year’s award, it looks like this trend is set to continue.
In fact, the phenomenon is becoming more acute. London’s dominance of the UK’s highest architecture accolade has increased dramatically since the Covid-enforced break in 2020.
In the 24 years before Covid, only 38 per cent of shortlisted buildings and 37 per cent of winners were in London.
Since 2020, both these numbers have risen dramatically, with the city accounting for 63 per cent of shortlisted buildings and a whopping 75 per cent of winners.
Is London overrepresented?
So, statistically the Stirling Prize is dominated by London, and this has become more pronounced in recent years.
However, determining whether London is unfairly overrepresented is complex. On a simple per-capita basis it would seem that way, as London only constitutes around 13 per cent of the UK’s population.
But high-quality architecture is not evenly distributed. With more money and more cultural institutions, perhaps it’s not surprising that many of the UK’s best buildings are in London.
Writing in UK magazine Building Design, Dezeen columnist Eleanor Jolliffe also highlighted the vast disparity in the amount spent on construction across the UK as a key reason that large numbers of London projects are consistently shortlisted.
“According to the ONS, in 2023 £1.8 billion of construction took place in the North East of England,” she wrote. “In the same period £8.7 billion was spent in London.”
“The contribution of architectural services to the economy from the north east in 2023 was £489 million, London’s contribution was £4.8 billion,” she continued. “While I would like to believe that groundbreaking architecture can be cheap, the reality is that really good buildings are very expensive.”
Who is designing the Stirling Prize winners?
Not only is the Stirling Prize dominated by buildings located in London, the studios designing them are also predominantly from the capital.
Of the 28 winning buildings, only five have been designed by non-London-headquartered studios.
Three of those were from outside the UK – Herzog & de Meuron, EMBT and Grafton Architects, leaving Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Hodder + Partners as the only non-London-based UK studios to win the prize.
What could be done to improve the balance?
Determining architecture’s quality is, of course, largely subjective, so it is almost impossible to determine if the awards really are biased towards London.
However, the regional imbalance certainly gives the impression that the RIBA believes the majority of the UK’s best architecture is in London.
Luckily, a fairly simple shake-up to the way the Stirling Prize shortlist is determined could shake off the appearance of London bias. The RIBA has a ready-built mechanism that could create a clearer and more geographically broad shortlist.
As described above, currently the shortlist is picked from the RIBA National Award winners, which are in turn picked from the RIBA Regional Award winners in a broadly hierarchical system.
However, as part of the RIBA Regional Awards each of the 13 regions also selects its best project and names it the Building of the Year. These 13 buildings could instead become the Stirling Prize shortlist. Potentially, this list could be announced at the same time as at the National Award winners.
This would ensure that the best architecture from every region competes for the top prize, making it a truly national award. It would draw attention to buildings created outside the capital and showcase a broader range of studios than it currently does.
If it turns out that all of the best buildings actually are all in London, this system would still allow them to win the Stirling Prize. However, the deck would not be stacked with London projects, as there would only be one building from the capital in the final running, rather than four or five.
Last year’s winner, for example, the Elizabeth Line by Grimshaw, Maynard, Equation and AtkinsRéalis, was named RIBA London Building of the Year, so would have still been in the running to win the Stirling Prize.
What does the RIBA say?
Dezeen put the figures in this story to the RIBA and asked if it is concerned about London bias. In response, RIBA president Chris Williamson made a similar point to Jolliffe about the level of investment in the capital compared to elsewhere in the UK.
“As with many national award programmes, any regional overrepresentation ultimately reflects the levels of investment across the country,” he said.
“It also reflects London’s status as a global hub, attracting global talent, where competition for innovation remains exceptionally high.”
Asked if the RIBA is planning to address the perceived London bias, Williamson said the awards programme is being “constantly reviewed”.
“While it’s great to see significant national attention on this year’s shortlist, it’s also important to celebrate winners throughout the awards process,” he said.
“Our 116 regional award winners announced earlier this year stretch across the UK, demonstrating the unique strengths and identity of each region.”
“Our awards criteria are constantly reviewed to ensure that they reflect an ever-changing profession,” he continued.
“For example, anyone submitting their project for the 2026 cycle will be required to provide additional sustainability data, as we look to align the awards with the profession’s climate commitments.”
