London's Elizabeth line wins top architecture prize

The Elizabeth line, London's newest bid line, has been awarded the UK's astir prestigious architecture prize.

The Stirling Prize is usually awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) to the country's champion caller building, but this twelvemonth it has gone to the full 62-mile web and its 10 caller stations.

The judges praised its "slick suite of architectural components", successful which "the emblematic commuter chaos is transformed into an effortless experience".

Not each passengers volition stock that view. Some person complained astir delays and overcrowding, and three person told BBC London they were injured astatine Ealing Broadway presumption due to the fact that the spread betwixt the level and the trains is excessively big.

The line, which runs from eastbound to westbound via cardinal London, opened successful 2022 and transports much than 700,000 passengers each weekday.

New presumption areas were built astatine Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf, among different locations.

"It is an extraordinarily analyzable architectural feat masked by an elegant simplicity," Riba said.

Riba president and assemblage seat Muyiwa Oki said: "The Elizabeth enactment is simply a triumph successful architect-led collaboration, offering a flawless, efficient, beautifully choreographed solution to inner-city transport.

"It's an uncluttered canvas that incorporates a slick suite of architectural components to make a consistent, line-wide individuality - done which thousands of regular passengers navigate with ease.

"Descending into the colossal web of tunnels feels similar entering a portal to the future, wherever the emblematic commuter chaos is transformed into an effortless experience."

He added that it is "architecture of the integer age", which "utilises cutting-edge exertion to make distinctive spatial characteristics and experiences", and "sets a bold caller modular for civic infrastructure".

The Elizabeth enactment was formerly known arsenic Crossrail earlier being renamed aft Queen Elizabeth II.

It was designed by a radical of architects, engineers and designers including Grimshaw, Maynard, Equation and AtkinsRéalis.

Neill McClements, a spouse astatine Grimshaw, said: "The Elizabeth enactment is simply a portion of infrastructure that has been transformative, not lone for London’s transport web but besides for galore people’s lives, highlighting the relation plan plays successful elevating our each day."

The grant comes astir a twelvemonth aft London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the Elizabeth enactment had "not met the consistently precocious standards" expected by Londoners.

Previous Stirling Prize winners see Goldsmith Street assembly lodging successful Norwich and The New Library astatine Magdalene College, Cambridge.

• Chowdhury Walk, London (designed by Al-Jawad Pike)
• King’s Cross Masterplan, London (Allies and Morrison and Porphyrios Associates)
• National Portrait Gallery, London (Jamie Fobert Architects and Purcell)
• Park Hill signifier two, Sheffield (Mikhail Riches)
• Wraxall Yard, Dorset (Clementine Blakemore Architects)