London College of Fashion leads Stirling Prize shortlist
The London College of Fashion has been shortlisted for the 2025 RIBA Stirling Prize, with judges praising its scale, clarity of design, and flexible concrete-framed spaces that support one of the world’s largest centres for fashion education.
Designed by Allies and Morrison for the University of the Arts London and the London Legacy Development Corporation, the 17-storey building consolidates six former sites into a single vertical campus at Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. At 38,144m² gross internal area, it is billed as the UK’s tallest higher-education building.
The RIBA jury said: “Limited in site area, the 40,000m² of accommodation could only be provided by building tall on the square plot. To deal with a complex brief and realise a building which would be stimulating but not overwhelming required a rational plan, which succeeds in creating a very legible organisation.”
The structure, built by contractor Mace with Buro Happold as structural engineer, relies on a robust concrete frame to deliver the scale, durability and adaptability required for thousands of students. Three-storey public zones sit below teaching floors and communal areas, with the vertical legibility reinforced by a disciplined material palette.
Inside, the building provides a mix of general learning spaces alongside highly specialist workshops – from footwear to jewellery, menswear to fashion journalism. The concrete frame and carefully zoned floorplates allow for flexibility as teaching and practice evolve.
“From a robust approach to materiality to a dramatic series of interior spaces, it provides a fitting backdrop to the colour of fashion and the charisma of its future creators,” said RIBA.
Other projects on this year’s Stirling Prize shortlist include Purcell’s restoration of the Elizabeth Tower, Witherford Watson Mann’s Appleby Blue Almshouse, Hugh Strange Architects’ Hastings House, Takero Shimazaki’s Niwa House, and Herzog & de Meuron’s Discovery Centre in Cambridge.
The winner of the 2025 Stirling Prize, sponsored by Autodesk, will be announced on 16 October at the Roundhouse, London.
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