A building which has “smashed the ceiling” of office design has scooped a top UK architecture award.
Bloomberg, London, designed by Foster And Partners, has won the 2018 Riba Stirling Prize for best new building.
It beat Tate St Ives in Cornwall and a cemetery in Hertfordshire to the annual award.
Bloomberg’s European headquarters has been described as the world’s most sustainable office by building environment experts, and is thought to be the largest stone building in the City of London since St Paul’s Cathedral.
Two buildings connected by a bridge sit either side of a new public arcade, which re-establishes an ancient Roman road.
The scheme also incorporates new access to Bank Underground station, cafes and restaurants, and a museum displaying the Roman Temple of Mithras, which was discovered on the site 60 years ago.
Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) president Ben Derbyshire said: “Bloomberg’s new European HQ is a monumental achievement. The creativity and tenacity of Foster And Partners and the patronage of Bloomberg have not just raised the bar for office design and city planning, but smashed the ceiling.
“This building is a profound expression of confidence in British architecture – and perfectly illustrates why the UK is the profession’s global capital. This role and reputation must be maintained, despite the political uncertainty of Brexit.”
Michael R Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, said they had aspired to “have a building that would inspire everyone who set foot inside it”.
As well as Tate St Ives in Cornwall and Bushey Cemetery, the shortlist also featured Chadwick Hall, University of Roehampton, London; Storey’s Field Centre and Eddington Nursery, Cambridge; and The Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre, Worcester College, Oxford.
Riba also announced that Old Shed New House, the “radical” transformation of a farm shed in North Yorkshire by Tonkin Liu Architects into a sustainable new home, has won the 2018 Stephen Lawrence Prize.
The £5,000 Prize aims to encourage new, experimental architectural talent, celebrating and rewarding projects with a construction budget of less than £1 million.
It was awarded in 1998 in memory of Lawrence, who was taking steps to become an architect before he was murdered in 1993.