Loyn & Co’s Outhouse in Gloucestershire has been made the new favourite for this year’s RIBA Stirling Prize by bookmaker William Hill.
The group’s 490 m2 country house in the Forest of Dean has taken over from early frontrunner Herzog & de Meuron’s Blavantik School of Government (7/2), as the bookies’ choice for the prize this year.
However, while Outhouse has been the best backed candidate by punters, William Hill insists that the race for the accolade is sure to be a close run thing, in fact it could be ‘the closest ever’.
A spokesman said that this year’s prize has turned out to be a very open race with all six of the buildings attracting support.
Three of the other contenders are 4/1 shots, with Caruso St John’s Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall still ranked as an outsider for the prize, even though it is currently at the top of one poll.
Zaha Hadid Architects’ Patrik Schumacher will chair this year’s judging panel, which will also feature AHMM’s Paul Monaghan, Heneghan Peng co-founder Roísín Heneghan, Mike Hussey, founder of sponsor Almacantar, and artist Rachel Whiteread.
The winner of the award will be announced on October 6 during a ceremony at the RIBA’s London headquarters.
Revised RIBA Stirling Prize odds (September 13):
3/1 Outhouse, Gloucestershire
7/2 Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
4/1 Weston Library, University of Oxford
4/1 Riverside Campus, City of Glasgow College, Glasgow
4/1 Trafalgar Place, Elephant & Castle, London
5/1 Newport Street Gallery, Vauxhall, London
Last year’s winner was Bruntwood School by Allford Hall Monaghan. The overhaul of a Modernist 1950s school for girls in London by claimed the RIBA Stirling Prize 2015 for the biggest contribution to British architecture in the last year.
London-based Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) added six new buildings to the Burntwood School campus in Wandsworth, among a number of retained historic structures including two designed by the late English architect Leslie Martin.
