Grimshaw partner Neill McClements has praised infrastructure projects for their role in addressing “big challenges”, following the Elizabeth Line winning this year’s RIBA Stirling Prize.
Commenting on the win, McClements emphasised the role of infrastructure projects in addressing both pressing social and environmental concerns.
The Elizabeth Line, which was designed by Grimshaw with Maynard, Equation and AtkinsRéalis, was awarded the prestigious architecture award last night.
“We’re at a kind of pivotal time in terms of some of the big challenges around the climate emergency, but also with inequality and some of the other issues that we’re dealing with at the moment,” McClements told Dezeen.
“I think hopefully getting this accolade is an endorsement of the importance of infrastructure and dealing with some of these challenges moving forward,” he added.
“And I think it would be great if we’re able to prioritise more investment within infrastructure in the coming years.”
Running from Reading to Essex via central London, The Elizabeth Line is the largest extension to London’s underground railway network for more than a century.
Used by 700,000 passengers every weekday, McClements highlighted the role of such infrastructure in improving the lives of its users.
Ultimately, a project like this is about connectivity and improving lives by giving people better access to jobs and housing and education and these types of things,” he said.
“But it’s also about the environment,” McClements continued. “It’s about taking cars off the road [and] improving air quality and also encouraging healthy, active travel [and] lifestyle benefits that come from that.”
So there’s a number of social benefits which are way beyond architecture.
For McClements, he suspects that the win may ignite similar infrastructure projects both across the UK and globally for their role in tackling transport-related climate challenges.
“I think British architects are respected around the world,” McClements said. “And actually, I think there are many governments around the world that see the importance of transport in infrastructure to transitioning towards net zero.”
“And I think it would just be great if we could create a pipeline of these types of projects within the UK, while we’ve got so much talent in the country.”
Other awards announced last night included the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize 2024, which awarded Clementine Blakemore Architects for its Wraxall Yard holiday accommodation, and the Neave Brown Award, for which the Chowdury Walk housing project by Al-Jawad Pike was announced winner.
The photography is by Hufton + Crow.
