Macallan’s eye-catching new £140 million distillery on Speyside has been shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize 2019 – the accolade given to the UK’s best new building of the year.
The distillery and visitor centre, which opened in 2018, has already won the RIAS Award 2019 and the RIBA Award for Scotland 2019, and is now part of a six-strong shortlist for the main RIBA Stirling Prize, awarded annually.
Past winners include 30 St Mary Axe in London (aka The Gherkin), the Scottish Parliament, Hastings Pier and, in 2018, Bloomberg’s new London headquarters.
According to the citation for the 22,000sq m distillery, which was designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners: ‘The rolling roofscape of this building echoes the form of the surrounding hills and serves to conceal an exceptionally well resolved and ingenious fusion of architecture, whisky technology and impactful interior settings, displaying the heritage of the Macallan brand.’
It goes on to praise the ‘warmly lit, majestic double curvature timber gridshell roof’ and the link between the new building ‘and the enchanting scenery of the Spey river, the source of water that brought the distillery to the site’.
The distillery will be vying for the top honour with five other projects, including the Cork House in Berkshire; the Weston visitor centre, Yorkshire Sculpture Park; the Nevill Holt Opera, Leicestershire; London Bridge Station in London; and the Goldsmith Street sustainable social housing project in Norwich.
The winner will be announced during a ceremony at London’s Roundhouse on 8 October.
Warmly lit: Judges have lauded Macallan’s ‘majestic’ double curvature roof
