A cork house and a council estate are in the running for the UK’s best new building.
Six builds, including a distillery and opera theatre, have been shortlisted for this year’s Riba Stirling Prize.
They include the “experimental” Cork House in Berkshire, made almost entirely from plant-based materials.
The “ingenious” home is made almost entirely from cork – aside from some timber, structural beams and glass windows – and described as a “first of its kind”.
Judges said: “The structure draws upon ancient inspiration, harking back to a time when humans and nature were more intertwined.”
With a solid structural cork wall and roof, the building “emits next to zero carbon”.
All the components can be reused or recycled, and the expanded cork blocks were made using by-product and waste from cork forestry and the cork stopper industry.
Meanwhile, a council housing scheme built entirely for social rent is on the shortlist for the first time.
Goldsmith Street is a large development of 105 “highly energy-efficient homes” for social rent, for Norwich City Council.
The “radical reconfiguration and development” of London Bridge Station is also on the shortlist.
The “high-tech and futuristic” Macallan Distillery and Visitor Experience in Speyside, Scotland, could also win best new building.
Nevill Holt Opera, a £5 million contemporary opera theatre within a 17th-century stable block in Leicestershire has also been whittled down from a longlist of more than 50.
And Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s £3.6 million visitor centre and gallery The Weston, on the site of a former millstone grit quarry, completes the shortlist.
Judges say it is “almost as though the building has been hewn from the ground.”
Riba president Ben Derbyshire said the shortlist comes as the “UK faces the worst housing crisis for generations”.
“But what they have in common – ground-breaking innovation, extraordinary creativity and the highest quality materials and detailing – sets them apart, rightfully earning them a chance to win the highest accolade in architecture.”
“From the way that Cork House experiments with plant-based materials, to Goldsmith Street’s ultra-low energy affordable homes, each of these six buildings push the boundaries of architecture, exceeding what has been done before, and providing solutions to some of the most pressing challenges of our times.”
The winner of the 2019 Riba Stirling Prize will be announced on October 8 at the Roundhouse in London.
