RIBA celebrates James Stirling in new Liverpool exhibition
This year is the 30th anniversary of the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize – and RIBA North is celebrating with a new exhibition about the architect who inspired it.
James Stirling: A Liverpool Education comes to Tate Liverpool + RIBA North on Mann Island from November 27 to April 25, 2027.
Born in Glasgow in 1924, Sir James Stirling studied at the University of Liverpool School of Architecture from 1945 to 1950.
And the exhibition considers the influential, multi-award-winning architect through the lens of his Liverpool connections, exploring how the city shaped his life and work.
Although born in Scotland, Stirling’s family moved to Liverpool when he was young (his father was a ship's engineer) and he attended Quarry Bank High School and then Liverpool School of Art before serving in the Parachute Regiment in the Second World War.
Growing up in the city, he was fascinated by the form and scale of its industrial past, influences that would continue to shape his architectural work throughout his career.
At Liverpool School of Architecture in the late 1940s, at that time under the influential Professor Lionel Budden, Stirling was exposed to a more radical attitude to design and became part of a cohort of ambitious young architects looking to rebuild Britain to according to Modernist principles. Fellow students reportedly described him as 'a rebel'.
Above: The Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart. Photo by Alastair Hunter. Top: Sir James Stirling at his desk. Photo by Jon Donat. Both images from the RIBA Collection.
The exhibition features material including drawings, photographs and film from the RIBA Collections and the Canadian Centre for Architecture, along with photographs from Stirling’s own personal archive of scenes of Liverpool, and traces his journey from an ambitious student to a world-class architect.
Stirling died in 1992, aged 68, following a minor operation, and in 1996 the Stirling Prize for excellence in architecture was founded in his honour.
In 2014, the prestigious annual accolade was awarded to Haworth Tompkins for the new Liverpool Everyman theatre.
Among Stirling's own work locally meanwhile was the original Tate Liverpool at the Royal Albert Dock in 1988, designed by the firm of James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates. Stirling also designed the Clore Gallery at Tate Britain.
Above: The Liverpool Everyman won the 2014 Stirling Prize for architecture.
Meanwhile his many professional awards included the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, presented in 1980.
Oliver Urquhart-Irvine, RIBA Executive Director, Architecture Programmes & Collections, says: “As we mark 30 years of the Stirling Prize, there could be no more fitting tribute than an exhibition celebrating James Stirling's remarkable legacy and the wonderful city of Liverpool that helped shape his life and work.
“Despite his ground-breaking contributions to architecture, his work was often somewhat overlooked, with some describing him as ‘a prophet without honour in his own country’.
"Through this exhibition we are proud to honour his incomparable career, recognise his lasting influence, and reaffirm Liverpool’s place at the heart of his story.”
James Stirling: A Liverpool Education is at Tate Liverpool + RIBA North from November 27 to April 25 2027.