News: Rotherham to host RIBA ceremony

Magna Science and Adventure Centre in Rotherham is set to be the venue for this year's Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize.

The ceremony will take place on October 1 and will be broadcast as a special edition of BBC Two's The Culture Show.


The Magna Science and Adventure Centre won the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2001 when Wilkinson Eyre architects transformed the redundant Templeborough steelworks into the UK's first science adventure centre.

Tony Chapman, Head of Awards at the RIBA, said: "We hadn't yet held the RIBA Stirling Prize in Yorkshire so were keen to do so. This coincided with it being ten years since Magna Science Adventure Centre won the RIBA Stirling Prize and we thought it would be a nice way to mark it."

Matthew Beck, Managing Director at Magna, added: "Magna is delighted to be hosting the RIBA awards in October. This is very unique as it is the first time that the awards have been hosted in a Sterling Prize winning venue, as Wilkinson Eyre won it in 2001 for its work on the Magna Science Adventure Centre.

"As a multi award winning corporate hospitality venue we know that we can deliver a spectacular evening for all our guests. So it will be a very special celebration and a great party. It will also be an opportunity for Magna to showcase to the architects its new solar PV roof, the largest in the country and its plans for the new Green Innovation Centre."

The RIBA Stirling Prize in association with The Architects' Journal and Benchmark is awarded to the architects of the building that has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year.

This win was derived from the presence of the Sheffield Convention Bureau, part of Marketing Sheffield, at International CONFEX 2010 where discussions began to bring this highly coveted awards ceremony to the area. The city's presence at this important event was funded by Welcome to Yorkshire.

Magna website

Images: visitmagna.co.uk