BRITAIN: The Stirling Prize for architecture has been won by the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh - a controversial building that ended up costing almost as much as Dublin's two Luas lines.
Designed by Enric Miralles, who died before construction started, it was described by the jury as "a remarkable architectural statement which has an enormous impact", not least due to its "series of extraordinary spaces and their changing effects".
The Glucksman Gallery in UCC, designed by Dublin-based O'Donnell and Tuomey Architects, was on the shortlist of six, all of which were featured in a Channel 4 documentary on Saturday evening before the winner was announced.
The other contenders were the Fawood children's centre in London, by Will Alsop; the McLaren Technology Centre in Surrey, by Foster and Partners; the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, by Zaha Hadid and a library in Brighton, by Rab Bennett and Nick Lomax.
Meanwhile, members of the public are being given an opportunity to have their say in selecting their favourite building from a shortlist of 10 nominees for the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI).
Architects of the building which receives most votes in the web poll (at www.riai.ie) will receive a special award when the medal - acknowledged as the most prestigious award in Irish architecture - is presented by President Mary McAleese on November 10th.
Previous winners of the gold medal include Michael Scott for Busáras in Dublin (1953), Liam McCormick for Burt Church, Co Donegal (1965-1967) and, most recently, deBlacam and Meagher for the library and IT building at Cork Institute of Technology.
DeBlacam and Meagher are nominated this year for three projects - the Wooden Building, Temple Bar; 1 Castle Street and the Esat Building on Grand Canal Quay - while McGarry Ní Eanaigh feature twice for Smithfield and the boardwalk on the Liffey quays.
Also in the running are Fingal County Hall (Bucholz McEvoy/ BDP Dublin), Ranelagh multi-denominational school (O'Donnell and Tuomey), the Millennium Tower, Charlotte Quay (O'Mahony Pike), the Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo (McCullough Mulvin) and Tulach a' tSolais, Co Wexford (Scott Tallon Walker).
