The Everyman Theatre, Liverpool has won the RIBA Stirling Prize for the best building of the year.
RIBA president, Stephen Hodder hailed the project as a “ground-breaking example of how to build a daring, bold and highly sustainable large public building in a historic city centre”.
The Everyman was built using a JCT Standard Building Contract. It is a 400-seat auditorium and arts space, a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rated building, and is exemplary in terms of its sustainable approach and the way in which it has engaged the community at all levels throughout the project’s design and construction.
Designed by architect Haworth Tompkins (the same team behind National Theatre’s The Shed, which also used a JCT contract), the former site was carefully demolished so that 25,000 bricks could be re-used from the old site. In addition, the building’s west facing facade features large-scale public work of art of 105 life size portraits of contemporary Liverpool residents, cut from aluminium plates using a pioneering water-jet technology.
The project engaged with the city’s community through a series of public events, so the completed work can be viewed as a creative snapshot of the diversity of the local population.
The Everyman Theatre continues a precedent for RIBA Stirling Prize winning projects that make use of JCT contracts. Last year’s winner, Astley Castle in Warwickshire was also completed using a JCT Intermediate Building Contract.
The Everyman Theatre is the featured case study of the October 2014 edition of JCT news. Find out more about this project, along with Astley Castle and other JCT projects by visiting our newsletter page.