Stirling Prize: £1bn London Bridge station overhaul shortlisted for architecture award

In one corner, the £1 billion overhaul of London Bridge station, one of the country’s biggest and busiest railway hubs. In the other, a humble cottage made of cork.

Both projects are on the shortlist for the Stirling Prize, awarded for the nation’s best new building by the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba). They illustrate the breadth of nominations this year.

The London Bridge project by Grimshaw Architects, which has increased passenger capacity by two thirds, involved a complete remodelling of the station while the trains were still running.

Cork House in Berkshire measures 44 square metres RIBA

It has been praised for sensitively recycling the station’s Victorian brick arches while adding an new concourse and a rippling canopy that flows around the Shard, western Europe’s tallest skyscraper at 310m.

The terminus faces competition from one of the smallest schemes ever to grace the shortlist: a tiny house made almost entirely of cork. Partly inspired by the shape of prehistoric Celtic beehive homes, Cork House measures 44 square metres but is also the most eco-friendly dwelling yet.

Designed by Matthew Barnett Howland with Dido Milne and Oliver Wilton as part of a research project, it is sited within the grounds of a grade II listed 19th-century mill house in Eton, Berkshire. Its walls and ceiling are made from the waste wood derived from traditional Mediterranean cork forestry. As such the house, which is dry-jointed and can be assembled and disassembled by hand, was carbon negative at completion and has the lowest whole-life carbon for any building yet developed over a 60-year lifespan.

Two projects on the list have been designed to be virtually invisible. The Nevill Holt Opera House, by Witherford Watson Mann, is hidden in the courtyard of an old stable block at Nevill Holt Hall in Leicestershire, home of the Carphone Warehouse co-founder David Ross, and is designed to provide a fitting home for an annual festival and seat audiences of up to 400 cognoscenti.

The Macallan Distillery, by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, boasts a rolling green roof that matches the scenery in Craigellachie, Moray.

The Weston at Yorkshire Sculpture Park transformed a former quarry into a gallery and visitor centre (RIBA/PA)

The last two projects shortlisted for the prize, which is awarded in October, are the Weston at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, by Feilden Fowles, which has transformed a former millstone grit quarry into a gallery and visitor centre, and Goldsmith Street by Mikhail Riches. Goldsmith Street in Norwich has been 12 years in the making but has won international attention for the way it provides affordable housing on a large scale in attractive, low-lying terraces while meeting exacting environmental standards.Ben Derbyshire, Riba president, said: “Given the fact the UK faces the worst housing crisis for generations and a global climate emergency, we must encourage architectural ambition, innovation, bravery and skill.”