The restored Elizabeth Tower, popularly known as Big Ben, has been shortlisted for the Royal Institute of British Architects' (RIBA) Stirling Prize, the institute announced this week.
The five-year, £80 million project to repair and conserve the tower at the Palace of Westminster is one of six nominees for the United Kingdom's leading architecture award. RIBA judges commended the work as "a masterclass in conservation and craftsmanship," highlighting the technical skill and care taken to preserve the landmark.
The nomination list pairs the Elizabeth Tower with a diverse set of recent projects, ranging from major institutional buildings to sensitive residential interventions. Also shortlisted are the new London College of Fashion campus built on the former Olympic Park in east London, AstraZeneca's medical research centre in Cambridge, the Appleby Blue Almshouse retirement home in south London, the Japanese-inspired Niwa House in south London and an extension to a private house in Hastings described by judges as "inventive."
RIBA's Stirling Prize is awarded annually to the architect or team judged to have made the most significant contribution to British architecture in the past year. The award recognises excellence across design, craftsmanship and the way a building responds to its context. Last year's prize went to the Elizabeth line project, which opened a new east–west rail connection across London.
The Elizabeth Tower conservation programme addressed long-standing issues affecting the 19th-century structure, with work including detailed stone repair, paint restoration and refurbishment of the clock mechanisms and roof fabric. Project teams balanced modern conservation techniques with efforts to retain historic material and original detailing, a combination judges said demonstrated exemplary practice in preserving an iconic public monument.
RIBA will select a winner from the shortlist later in the year. The nomination of the Elizabeth Tower places the high-profile conservation project in direct comparison with new-build innovation and smaller-scale architectural interventions, underlining the institute's assessment of both restoration and contemporary design as vital to the nation's built environment.
The Stirling Prize shortlist reflects a range of typologies and scales, from research campuses and higher-education facilities to retirement housing and domestic architecture, demonstrating the breadth of projects considered to advance British architecture in recent years.