Date published: 2008/10/12
The BBC says:
A contemporary housing estate for a "post-Thatcherite Britain" has won the 2008 Stirling Prize for architecture.
Accordia, in Cambridge, was one of six developments shortlisted for the Royal Institute of Architecture (RIBA) prize, and the first housing estate to win it.
Its architects received the £20,000 prize at a ceremony in Liverpool.
The judges said Accordia, on a brownfield site near the city centre, won because it is "not afraid of communal aspirations and aesthetics".
It also impressed the panel with good size, well-proportioned rooms in its houses and flats.
"This is high-density housing at its very best," the judges said.
Needless to say it's a bit arbitrary what does and does not win the Stirling Prize. Some semi-random committee of worthies gets to decide what is allegedly the best "building" (or in this case, collection of buildings). The fact that the prize is named after James Stirling, who was architect for one of the worst buildings ever put up in Cambridge (although it was not entirely his fault, the builders were also dreadful), just goes to show what architects think of their customers.
If Accordia was the best housing estate, never mind the best building, put up by a British architect (in the UK or not in the UK) in the last year, then UK housing is really in a dreadful state. Well, at its best, the Accordia site has some nice blocks of flats. But many of the buildings are rather pedestrian. One can imagine that a lot of these blocks are attractive to Londoners, who are the people who decide these prizes. After all, London is a fairly dreadful city all the way around, and so to a Londoner the Accordia site looks like a slice of heaven. But if you compare Accordia to the best of pre-war buildings in Cambridge (e.g. on Barrow Road or Latham Road) then there is no comparison.
And when you think that (most of) these buildings are aimed at millionaires, or near millionaires, it is not exactly inspiring. Further, the site is close enough to the Cambridge railway station that a lot of residents are just London commuters. Hardly a great victory for Cambridge, or for a "sustainable" lifestyle.
And the social housing on the site has all been dumped in a corner at the back. That is hardly worthy of "communal aspirations". There are also no public facilities on the site (except for a large lawn and a disused nuclear bunker) so that is not very good either.
Still, Accordia, being targetted at the rich, is far better than the other recent major housing site in Cambridge, Arbury Park.
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