Award-winning library rips up the rule book

TO a more traditional eye, it may look like it hasn’t been finished yet. But this building has landed a top architectural award.

Kingston University’s Town House is the 25th winner of the Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize.

The building in south-west London, which is wrapped in tall concrete columns and cost £50million, features a library, dance studios and an amphitheatre. It beat Cornwall’s Tintagel Footbridge and the Windermere Jetty Museum in Cumbria.

Lord Foster, chairman of the prize jury, said: ‘In this highly original work, quiet reading, loud performance, research and learning can delightfully coexist. That is no mean feat.’