Paddington Square, an 18-storey glass cube designed by Renzo Piano, stands as the conspicuous outlier on this year's Stirling Prize shortlist, which is otherwise dominated by brick buildings. The tower, developed by the same team behind the Shard, was originally envisioned as a 72-storey residential tower but was scaled down after planning refusal. Now rebadged as Paddington Square, it shapes a new public realm around its base, improving the arrival experience at Paddington Station.
A Shortlist of Brick and Refinement
The shortlist, coordinated by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), features six contenders. Besides Paddington Square, the others are all brick schemes: a brick house, a brick housing scheme, two brick additions to Cambridge colleges, and a brick extension to a theatre. Catherine Slessor, writing for the Guardian, notes the homogeneity, describing it as a 'Jaguar dashboard' school of design – tastefully refined and quintessentially English.
Among the brick projects, Sergison Bates' Fairmead House in Epping uses pale beige Cumbrian bricks in a modern villa that references local Georgian precedents. Mary Duggan and Ruff Architects' Lion Green Road housing in Croydon features three subtle shades of brown brick in a cluster of pavilions around a sloping parkland site.
Cambridge College Additions
Two schemes for Cambridge colleges make the shortlist. Haworth Tompkins' work at Pembroke College includes a new residential court in purply reddish brick and a disused church converted into an auditorium. Witherford Watson Mann, last year's winner, returns with the River Wing at Clare College, also in purply reddish brick, infilling a timber structure on a tight site backing onto the River Cam.
Bennetts Associates' transformation of a 1970s theatre in Hertford uses mottled light orange brick to rework the building while maintaining its civic familiarity.
Geographical and Stylistic Limitations
The shortlist has been criticised for its lack of geographical diversity, with nothing from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, or the north or west of England. Slessor points out that other notable projects, such as the Tarlair Pool in Aberdeenshire, David Kohn's housing for New College Oxford, the Buttermarket in Redruth, and Squire & Partners' renovation of Space House on London's Kingsway, were overlooked. These might have sparked wider public conversations about good architecture, she argues.
The winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize 2026 will be announced on 15 October at Old Billingsgate, London.
