James Stirling

1926–1992 · British · 10 buildings on the wall

James Stirling (1926–1992) was a British architect, born in Glasgow, whose work moved from hard-edged, technical modernism to colourful postmodern buildings that borrow from the past. He worked with James Gowan from 1956 to 1963 and with Michael Wilford from 1971 until his death, and he won the Pritzker Prize in 1981. Britain's annual Stirling Prize for architecture is named after him.

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With Gowan he designed the Leicester University Engineering Building (1963), noted for its technical, geometric character and for being worked out in axonometric drawings seen from above and below. Alone he designed the History Faculty Building, Cambridge (1968). The Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart (1984) plays on the plan of Berlin's neoclassical Altes Museum: a public path and ramp wind around a central open-air rotunda, and sandstone and travertine meet green steel frames and bright pink and blue handrails. No 1 Poultry in London (1997), finished after his death by Wilford, has bands of pink and yellow stone and became the youngest building in England listed Grade II*. James Stirling's projects are studied for bold form and their dialogue with history.

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