RIBA announce the public’s favourite award-winning project

The Elizabeth Line, designed by Tenderstream member Grimshaw, along with Maynard, Equation and AtkinsRéalis, has won the Stirling at 30 Public Vote. The vote was held by RIBA to identify the favourite Stirling Prize project among all its former winners. As one of the most significant contributions to London's transportation in over 20 years, the Elizabeth line is a feat of engineering but also a piece of infrastructure that demonstrates the role design plays in elevating and transforming people's everyday lives, connecting communities, humanising the journey, and fostering civic pride. 

Working across the Elizabeth line, the line-wide team was part of a wider Crossrail design team, interfacing with architects across the 10 new stations, including Tenderstream members John McAslan + Partners and WilkinsonEyre, alongside Weston Williamson + Partners, Hawkins\Brown, AHR (formerly Aedas), BDP, Adamson Associates, Allies and Morrison, and Fereday Pollard. 

Officially opened in May 2022, after 12 years in design, construction and delivery, the new line is now part of the London Underground network, running 100km east to west across the city through 42km of new tunnels. Carrying an estimated 200 million passengers per year, increasing the capacity of central London’s underground railway network by 10%, the line connects London from Reading and Heathrow to Shenfield and Abbey Wood, and reduces commuter travel to these areas by up to 30 minutes. Through an intensive and collaborative process, the team conceptualised an approach whereby individual stations respond with their own architecture to their individual contexts. As passengers descend to platform level, the manifestation of a line-wide identity strengthens through the application of consistent cladding, lighting, signage, furniture, and platform edge screens.

This year's Stirling Prize was awarded to Mary Duggan Architects with Ruff Architects for Lion Green Road, a unique housing scheme that eschews the streets-and-squares layout of conventional London development in favour of ‘pavilions in the park’. Peeking above the trees in leafy Coulsdon, five multifaceted blocks set out a bold template for dense, large-scale development in suburban settings.

Lucy Nordberg
Tenderstream Head of Research

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