UK design award ‘snubs Scotland’

A SCOTTISH architect shortlisted for the UK’s most prestigious and richest design award has accused the organisers of snubbing buildings built north of the Border.

Aberdeen-born Rab Bennetts, whose own firm is among the favourites for his Shakespeare theatre complex in Stratford-upon-Avon, said the Stirling Prize had a “London bias” that has repeatedly ignored Scottish buildings that should have made the finals.

Since the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh won the £20,000 award in 2005, not one building in Scotland has been shortlisted for the prize. Bennetts’ views have been backed by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), which says it has considered breaking away from the Stirling and organising its own competition.

Bennetts said: “There have been good buildings in Scotland, and there is no question that some of them were good enough to have been on the Stirling Prize shortlist, but they haven’t been.

“There is a London bias. One of my own projects in Edinburgh was considered in the longlist two or three years ago and I wasn’t at all upset that it didn’t make the shortlist until I saw some of the other buildings that had made it. It would be nice to see more Scottish buildings on the shortlist. I do think Scottish architects have easily got the talent to produce buildings of that quality so it should happen more often.”

Neil Baxter, the secretary of the Royal Incorporation of Architects Scotland, said that a number of Scottish projects that should have made the list had been overlooked.

“We have become increasingly frustrated by the situation,” he said.

“We have raised it with the RIBA [the Royal Institute of British Architects, which runs the prize] and indicated our concerns on several occasions. Over successive years, the lack of Scottish buildings being shortlisted has become more and more glaring. What is being produced in Scotland is not just of UK quality, it is European, it’s among the very best, and the situation is disgraceful.”

He added: “There was a threat to have a complete break away from the RIBA awards and that was discussed at our last council meeting. The Scottish attitude is: ‘OK well, if we’re not going to get shortlisted for the Stirling, then we need our own identity.’”

Bennetts, who runs his firm Bennetts Associates with his wife Denise, has offices in London and Edinburgh and masterminded the £110 million Shakespeare Theatre complex in Stratford that opened earlier this year. He cited works such as the Bridge Arts Centre in Easterhouse by Gareth Hoskins and the Shettleston Housing Association offices by Elder & Canon as buildings that should have been considered by the judging panel.

Baxter added: “The fact that the Shettleston Housing Association offices by Elder & Cannon architects has not been shortlisted for this year’s Stirling Prize is nothing short of disgraceful, and every single architect in Scotland would agree with me on that. The shortlist on the Stirling Prize this year is a list of the usual suspects from London, the big names, and thankfully, also Rab Bennetts.”

Tony Chapman, head of awards at RIBA, said: “Four Scottish buildings have made the Stirling Prize shortlist in the last ten years which doesn’t sound great, but then there are only six buildings shortlisted. We have a system which is as fair as possible where RIAS recognise the first round of judging and pass things on to us to judge further. In the end, you’ve got to give the awards to what we believe are the best buildings. Sometimes we’ve got it wrong but we’ve seen some great buildings in Scotland.

“As for Scotland breaking away from the Stirling Prize, we would be very sad if that were to happen because we want to be able to say ‘we think this is the best building in the UK’ and of course we would no longer be able to do that.”

Bennetts, who is a former Scottish Architect of the Year and won an OBE for his services to architecture in 2003, also said he was concerned about the lack of funding for large cultural projects as Lottery funding is diverted elsewhere.

“[The Shakespeare Theatre] is one of the very last major projects created on the back of a very big Lottery grant,” he said. “I don’t think there will be another round of big projects like this because it’s so difficult to fund-raise.

“This tremendous investment in the arts and culture that’s gone on in the UK for 14 years since the Lottery kicked in, there will be a lot less of now. Money is being diverted to other things that should be part of the government’s core spending agenda, like schools and the 2012 Olympics. The amount of money left for culture is going to diminish without a doubt. The need for funding, particularly in Scotland, is critical.”

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