Castillo de Astley

The Stirling Prize, given every year by the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) to the best buildings by British architects in the European Union, went to Witherford Watson Mann for the refurbishment of Astley Castle in Warwickshire (England). Abandoned after a ravaging fire, the castle rose from the ruins thanks to a project designed by the architects after winning the competition called in 2007 by The Landmark Trust, which rescues historical buildings for touristic purposes. The project proposed a dialog with the old masonry walls, and their caerful recovery through a complex construction process. With this commission, the London-based studio carried the day over booming studios in the United Kingdom and other high-quality works: the Park Hill housing in Sheffield, by Hawkins/Brown with Egret West; Bishop Edward King Chapel in Oxford by Niall McLaughlin; the Giant’s Causeway Visitors’ Center in Antrim by Heneghan Peng; the University of Limerick Medical School by Grafton Architects, and the Newhall Be Residents’ Complex in Harlow by Alison Brooks.