Practice’s Sands End Arts and Community Centre leads pack at 3:1, says William Hill
First-time Stirling Prize shortlister Mæ Architects is favourite to win the UK’s most prestigious accolade in architecture this year, according to bookmaker William Hill.
The practice’s Sands End Arts and Community Centre in Fulham has odds of 3:1 to pick up the 2022 best-building prize when the winner is announced next month.
Close on Mæ’s tail is the only other “new blood” practice on the shortlist: Panter Hudspith. Its Orchard Gardens housing development at Elephant Park in south London is second-placed at 7:2.
Fully half of the six-strong Stirling Prize shortlist is in joint third place, according to William Hill. Hopkins Architects’ 100 Liverpool Street; Niall McLaughlin Architects’ New Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge; and Henley Halebrown’s Hackney New Primary School and 333 Kingsland Road project are all tied at 4:1.
Only slightly behind is fourth-time Stirling shortlister Reiach and Hall Architects with its Forth Valley College – Falkirk Campus, which William Hill has at 5:1.
The Online Betting Guide noted that the six strong field was “tight” and suggested that odds movements were likely between now and the 66 Portland Place ceremony at which the winner will be announced on 13 October.
It said the probability of Mæ collecting the 2022 prize was 25%, only marginally ahead of Panter Hudspith’s 22.2%.
Hopkins, Niall McLaughlin and Henley Halebrown each had a 20% probability of winning, while Reiach and Hall’s probability was 17.6%, OLBG said.
Betting on the Stirling Prize winner is traditionally low volume, however, and a potentially-unreliable indicator of the eventual outcome.
Days before Grafton Architects was named 2021 winner for its Town House at Kingston University, the practice was joint fourth in the betting hierarchy, with odds of 5:1.
Marks Barfield Architects’ Cambridge Mosque was favourite, with odds of 7:4. The project went on to win the people’s vote.
OLBG noted that there was a 60% chance of the 2022 Stirling Prize winner being a London project, on the grounds that four of the six shortlisted projects are in the capital.
RIBA 2022 Stirling Prize shortlist
100 Liverpool Street by Hopkins Architects (London)
“A net zero development encompassing a dramatic renovation and extension of a 1980s office block to create a suite of offices and commercial and public spaces in the heart of London’s financial district”
Forth Valley College – Falkirk Campus by Reiach and Hall Architects (Scotland)
“A set of three cutting-edge higher-education facilities connected by courtyards and open learning spaces”
Hackney New Primary School and 333 Kingsland Road by Henley Halebrown (London)
“A striking red-brick complex that uniquely combines affordable housing with a new primary school for the growing east London community”
Orchard Gardens, Elephant Park by Panter Hudspith Architects (London)
“A playful cluster of buildings forming a new city block of 228 new homes and retail spaces wrapped around a communal garden – a major element of Elephant and Castle’s regeneration programme”
Sands End Arts and Community Centre by Mæ Architects (London)
”A welcoming, fully accessible single-storey building arranged around a disused lodge comprising flexible activity spaces and a community café”
The New Library, Magdalene College by Niall McLaughlin Architects (Cambridge)
“An exquisitely detailed timber-framed library and study space, designed to replace that previously gifted by Samuel Pepys and projected to survive for another 400 years”
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