Cambridge Central Mosque has been announced as one of six buildings on the shortlist for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize 2021, the UK’s most prestigious architecture award, given to the UK’s best new building.

The building – the first eco-friendly mosque in Europe – was one of 54 national winners of the prestigious RIBA awards, having already won multiple awards last month in the RIBA regional awards for the East of England. It has now been recognised as one of the six best new buildings in the UK, from which the Stirling Prize winner will be chosen. Members of the jury are yet to be announced.

Judges praised the Cambridge Central Mosque project saying, it was “a demonstration of how architecture can embody religious and cultural philosophy and traditions while utilising sustainable and contemporary materials.”

“It has created a new, 21st century, non-denominational British mosque that is both specific to its place and time and which resonates with wider Islamic and religious buildings. To have achieved this in Cambridge, with its world famous tradition of structural expression in religious architecture, yet without contrivance is a remarkable achievement.”

As previously reported on Islam Channel, The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) selected the mosque for the regional awards for the East of England last month, based upon the concept of a ‘calm oasis within a grove of trees.’

The jury praised the project for its ‘exemplary’ material selection. The mosque was also described as a ‘multidenominational mosque (that) gives Muslim traditions a contemporary context’.