The UK Pavilion at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai by Heatherwick Studio has scooped the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) prestigious RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the most outstanding work of international architecture by an RIBA member.
The prize is named after the world-renowned architect Berthold Lubetkin (1901-1990). The winner will be presented with a unique cast concrete plaque, based loosely on Lubetkin’s design for the Penguin Pool at London Zoo, commissioned by the RIBA and designed and made by the artist Petr Weigl.
The UK’s pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, named the ‘Seed Cathedral’, is constructed from 60,000 7.5 metre long slender acrylic tipped aluminum rods suspended in a timber frame which sits upon a landscaped area designed to look like a creased piece of paper. The long rods, which quiver in the breeze, create an effect which has been likened to a dandelion and a sea urchin.
The UK Pavilion beat off stiff competition from two other shortlisted buildings: Timberyard Social Housing, Dublin by O’Donnell and Tuomey and the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Centre, Alaska by David Chipperfield Architects.
The three shortlisted buildings were seen by a visiting jury comprising Paul Monaghan, architect and Chair of the RIBA Awards Group and Tony Chapman, RIBA Head of Awards, who reported to the full jury chaired by RIBA President Ruth Reed and including architect Keith Williams and Paul Finch, OBE, editorial director of The Architects’ Journal and chair of CABE.
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