Kingston University Town House

Conferred every year by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the Stirling Prize is a recognition of the best new buildings raised in the United Kingdom. The 2021 winner was Kingston University London – Town House, one of the works that Grafton Architects, the Dublin studio founded in 1978 by the Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, Pritzker Prize laureates in the year 2020, have most recently completed in Great Britain. An admirable sample of a new architectural type, it juxtaposes academic and artistic spaces and presents two characteristics of Grafton works. On the one hand, structural expressivity, reinterpreting 1960s and 1970s brutalism on an amiable note. On the other, a promise to uphold community values and social life. Speaking on behalf of the jury, Norman Foster said: “Kingston University Town House is a theatre for life – a warehouse of ideas. It seamlessly brings together student and town communities, creating a new progressive model for higher education, well deserving of international acclaim and attention.”