The Winner Revealed
The much anticipated winner of the 2010 RIBA Stirling Prize, offered in association with Benchmark and The Architects Journal, was finally revealed at the RIBA Stirling Prize Dinner on 2 October. Broadcast live from the Roundhouse on BBC Two’s The Culture Show, Zaha Hadid scooped the prestigious £20,000 prize for her National Museum of XXI Century Arts, MAXXI in Rome.
MAXXI beat off stiff competition, including Rick Mather's
Ashmolean Museum, which was voted the public favourite. The
building drew praise from the judges, who in their citation stated
that 'It is the quintessence of Zaha's constant attempt to create a
landscape as a series of cavernous spaces drawn with a free, roving
line. The resulting piece, rather than prescribing routes,
gives the visitor a sense of exploration. It is perhaps her best
work to date.'
Now in its 15th year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is awarded to the
architects of the best new European building 'built or designed in
Britain'. Zaha Hadid has been nominated on three previous
occasions, but this is the first time she has won the Prize.
