EVELYN GRACE ACADEMY BY ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS WINS THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS STIRLING PRIZE 2011

The Evelyn Grace Academy was awarded architecture’s highest accolade, the RIBA Stirling Prize 2011 on Saturday 1 October. This is the second consecutive year a project by Zaha Hadid Architects has won the prize. The MAXXI Museum in Rome was the winner in 2010.

RIBA President Angela Brady said: `The Evelyn Grace Academy is an exceptional example of what can be achieved when we invest carefully in a well-designed new school building. The result – a highly imaginative, exciting Academy that shows the students, staff and local residents that they are valued – is what every school should and could be. The unique design, expertly inserted into an extremely tight site, celebrates the school’s sports specialism throughout its fabric, with drama and views of student participation at every contortion and turn. Evelyn Grace Academy is a very worthy winner of architecture’s most prestigious award and I am delighted to present Zaha Hadid Architects with this accolade.`

Zaha Hadid said: ‘I am absolutely delighted the Evelyn Grace Academy has won the Stirling Prize. The design appreciates the students as valuable and responsible members of our society and treats them as such; engaging the students and their families by making the most of the ‘small schools within schools’ concept. I am convinced the new building has made a big difference. Since its opening last year, the students at Evelyn Grace have really taken ownership of their new school and their pride is evident for all to see. Schools are among the first examples of architecture that everyone experiences and have a profound impact on all children as they grow up. It is so important to invest in their ambition and sense of community.’

Peter Walker, Principal of the Evelyn Grace Academy said: `This visually stunning building makes a powerful statement to our students every day they attend school. As a new academy setting the highest expectations for all students, it is fitting that we have such an aspirational environment. The internal structure of the building supports the innovative nature of Evelyn Grace Academy’s small school system exceptionally well.`

The 2011 Stirling Prize Jury comments:
Evelyn Grace had a complex brief: four schools under a single academy umbrella and the consequent dichotomy of having to express both independence and unity. Curiously for a school whose speciality is sport, the site lacks any opportunity for significant outdoor sport but the architects have responded with guile and intelligence. The project is distinguished by its planning not its form of expression; its saltire plan solving the multiple demands of site and usage in a manner that seems effortless. Internally the academy is a functional modern school, with occasional spatial moments as reminders that this is real architecture, though not in any way at the expense of utility or value. And it makes kids run to get into school in the morning – what free school is going to do that?
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