RIBA Award

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Holburne Museum longlisted for the Stirling Prize

Bath’s Holburne Museum was one of four projects in the south west to win a prestigious architectural award and the only south west project to be awarded ‘Building of the Year’.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced the winners of the 2012 RIBA Awards on Thursday 21 June 2012. RIBA Awards for architectural excellence were presented to 50 buildings in the UK and 9 buildings elsewhere in the EU. The shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the building of the year will be drawn from the 59 RIBA Award winners. See the Guardian’s online gallery of 15 on the list, including the Holburne here>>

A RIBA spokesperson said of the Holburne’s development, ‘This intelligent project has recovered a lost connection between the city and an 18th-century pleasure garden.

Glimpsed from a distance through the trees, there is an unexpected ethereal quality to the extension to the museum. The use of materials and layering to the façade creates a sophisticated play of shadows, light and reflection – beautiful and unique, creating a building of true character that is underpinned by careful historical research and analysis and very much of its site.’

Alexander Sturgis, Director of the Holburne notes, ‘We are thrilled that our wonderful new building, designed by Eric Parry Architects, has received this recognition.

A tired but beautiful site has been transformed into a wonderful new museum, giving us the space to completely redisplay our collection and put on ambitious exhibitions such as our current show of portrait sculpture.

The Holburne’s extension has delivered on its promise of reuniting our building with the park behind and visitors can enjoy spilling out into the garden as people enjoyed doing in the eighteenth century.’

Ends

Notes to Editors

For further media information and images please contact:
Katie Jenkins, the Holburne Museum
Tel 01225 388547 Email k.jenkins@bath.ac.uk

The Holburne Museum houses an important art collection formed by Sir William Holburne in the nineteenth-century, which includes paintings, silver, sculpture, furniture and porcelain of national and international significance. Artists in the collection include Gainsborough, Guardi, Stubbs, Ramsay and Zoffany.

The Museum reopened in May 2011 after ambitious renovations and a new extension supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and designed by Eric Parry Architects. The Holburne has fast gained a reputation as one of a number of outstanding regional museums in the UK.

The Holburne Museum, Great Pulteney Street, Bath BA2 4DB
Open daily, free admission 10am to 5pm (11am to 5pm Sundays and Bank Holidays)
Tel: 01225 388569 email: holburne@bath.ac.uk   www.holburne.org

The RIBA Awards have been running continuously since 1966 and are judged and presented locally. No matter the shape, size, budget or location, RIBA Award winning schemes set the standard for great architecture all across the country. RIBA Awards are for buildings in the UK by RIBA Chartered Architects and RIBA International Fellows. Entries are to be submitted to the region or nation in which the building is situated. Winners are considered for the RIBA Stirling Prize.

For further information on The Architects’ Journal: www.architectsjournal.co.uk
The Royal Institute of British Architects champions better buildings, communities and the environment through architecture and our members. www.architecture.com

Regional Winners SOUTH WEST & WESSEX
Private House, Gloucestershire -Found Associates
The Dyson Centre for Neonatal Care, Bath – Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
The Holburne Museum, Bath – Eric Parry Architects
The Triangle, Swindon Glenn – Howells Architects

Published on: 22/06/2012