UK's best new building: Foster + Partners wins RIBA Stirling prize 2018 for Bloomberg's London HQ

Sustainable office building which creates a new street in heart of the City wins the nation's top architecture award.
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Lord Norman Foster’s architectural practice has won Britain’s most prestigious architecture prize for the third time after its “once-in-a-generation” building for Bloomberg’s European HQ was named the best new building in the UK for 2018.

Bloomberg, London, the European HQ for the finance and media agency, was awarded the RIBA Stirling prize at an award ceremony in London tonight.

Touted as the world’s most sustainable office, the Foster + Partners building is also believed to be the biggest stone structure in the City of London, after St Paul’s Cathedral.

Spread over an entire city block, the office was commissioned to house all Bloomberg’s London employees under the same roof for the first time.

Given its size, the client, Michael Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City and the eleventh richest person in the world, wanted the building to be a “good neighbour”, with the inclusion of public space and the sensitively designed sandstone and bronze exterior.

The building incorporates both public and private space, with two buildings connected by a bridge sitting on either side of a new public arcade, which re-establishes an ancient Roman road.

SEE INSIDE BLOOMBERG, LONDON

The scheme houses a museum displaying the Roman Temple of Mithras, which was discovered on the site 60 years ago.

The public aspect of the building also includes new access to Bank Underground station as well as cafes and restaurants.

Visitors enter the building through the ‘Vortex’, a double-height artwork formed from three timber shells, before proceeding via high-speed lift to the sixth-floor ‘Pantry’ concourse and café space with views across the City.

Offices below are linked by a 210 metre high bronze ramp with workspaces clustered on the wide open-plan floors.

Pioneering new technologies include multi-function ceilings fitted with 2.5 million polished aluminium petals to regulate acoustics, temperature and light and magnetic floorboards.

Impressively, at 1.1 million square feet the building has similar floor space to Canary Wharf’s central tower yet it is only 10 storeys high.

“By building at a lower height than approved at planning, reserving parts of the site for public space, and using highly-detailed, handcrafted materials, Bloomberg shows a high level of generosity towards the City,” said Sir David Adjaye OBE, chair of the 2018 judging panel.

“The real success though is in the experience for staff, visitors or passers-by – how Bloomberg has opened up new spaces to sit and breathe in the City; the visceral impact of the roof-top view across to St Paul’s from the concourse space, the energy of descending the helix ramp or settling into a desk in one of the dynamic new workspaces.”

Bloomberg was chosen as the 2018 RIBA Stirling Prize winner from the following shortlisted entries:

  • Bushey Cemetery, Hertfordshire by Waugh Thistleton Architects
  • Chadwick Hall, University of Roehampton, London by Henley Halebrown
  • New Tate St Ives, Cornwall by Jamie Fobert Architects with Evans & Shalev
  • Storey's Field Centre and Eddington Nursery, Cambridge by MUMA
  • The Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre, Worcester College, Oxford by Niall McLaughlin Architects

Last year's winner was Hastings Pier by dRMM architects, a community-led restoration of the historic pier, described by Derbyshire as “a masterpiece of regeneration and inspiration".

The 2018 prize jury included: Sir David Adjaye OBE (Chair); RIBA President, Ben Derbyshire; 2017 RIBA Stirling Prize winner, Alex de Rijke; former Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre, Jude Kelly CBE, and Almacantar Property Director, Kathrin Hersel. Architect Simon Sturgis was appointed as sustainability advisor.