Notes to editors

1. For images and further information please contact Mina Vadon in the RIBA Press Office on 020 7307 3761 or mina.vadon@inst.riba.org
2. Full citation follows:

Manchester Civil Justice Centre

1 Bridle Street West, Manchester

Architect:  Denton Corker Marshall

Client:   Allied London

Structural Engineer:      Mott MacDonald

Services Engineer: Mott MacDonald

Contractor:  Bovis Lend Lease

Contract Value:  £120m

Date of completion: July 2007

Gross internal area: 34,000 m2

The Manchester Civil Justice Centre is the largest court building to be built in the UK since the Royal Courts of Justice in the 1880s and it re-thinks the building type. This pioneering new building separates civil justice from the criminal justice system, creating a new civic building that is open and accessible. All courts demands a particular plan, separating public from the private, front of house from back of house. The response here is a very literal diagram: the working courts and offices are expressed as rectilinear forms, articulated at each floor level, with the court rooms internally expressed as cantilevered structures on the end elevations and meeting and waiting rooms projecting internally at right angles to the courts and into the atrium. It is an interesting place to be as a result. The detailing was described by one judge as 'gorgeous', particularly in the atrium where the lift facades with their dull gunmetal grey finish, and the understated trim to the boxes containing the meeting/waiting rooms, some yellow but mostly grey, give, in the best sense of the word, a corporate feel to the whole. It feels like the privilege it isn't to be there. In fact many of its users are architects and others from the world of construction, whose disputes have gone beyond angry phone calls. Relations between all the parties on this job clearly were considerably better and the result is a harmonious building that is by a distance the best building in the new Manchester.

The architectural expression and resolution of the environmental design sets this building apart. Environmental sustainability has been integrated into the design from the start; natural ventilation to all areas and a mixed-mode ventilation system serving the court rooms contributes to the BREEAM rating of 'Excellent'. The external veil on the rear of the building of grey perforate steel shades and conceals varied sizes of rooms behind – judges' chambers and small courts, provides solar shading and privacy and presents a powerful urban image from afar and a successful piece of townscape close to.

3. The RIBA Stirling Prize in association with The Architects' Journalis the UK's most prestigious architectural prize and is awarded annually to the architects of the building which has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year.  The RIBA awards programme was re-organised in 2007 in a pyramid structure.   The RIBA Awards are judged and presented locally and the the RIBA National Awards are judged and presented nationally.  The RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist is selected following further visits to winners of the RIBA National Awards and of RIBA European Awards for buildings in the rest of the EU
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