Stirling architecture prize 'ignores public'

The organisers of Stirling prize for architecture have been accused of bias against traditional design, contrary to public preferences

Bookies' favourite ... Fuglsang Kunstmuseum in Denmark, designed by Tony Fretton Architects. Photograph: Helene Binet

The organisers of the Stirling prize for architecture, the winner of which will be announced tonight, have been accused of harbouring a bias against traditional design, contrary to public preferences.

All six shortlisted entries for the £20,000 prize are based on contemporary designs, but a YouGov survey published yesterday showed that more than three-quarters of the public prefer traditional buildings.

Robert Adam, a prominent traditional architect, accused the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba), which administers the award, of ignoring popular opinion and refusing to acknowledge the quality of new traditional buildings that had been recognised in other national awards. "The architectural profession is so biased against traditional buildings that when architects give awards to architects they praise modernism, which is what most of them produce," he said.

The pollsters showed 1,042 respondents pictures of the facades of two contemporary buildings – a visual arts centre in Shoreditch, by Adjaye Associates, and Kings Place, a glass office and arts building in King's Cross that is partly occupied by the Guardian, by Dixon Jones – and two traditionally designed buildings – an office block by Robert Adam on Jermyn Street in London and a building in Berlin. Respondents were asked which they would most like to see built near their homes. Some 77% selected the traditional designs.

The findings reignited the traditional-versus-contemporary design debate that has been simmering all year. Two buildings by Richard Rogers, a leading modernist, are on the shortlist in a move seen by some as a vote of confidence after Rogers became embroiled in bitter row with Prince Charles, a traditionalist, over architectural style.

The bookmakers' favourite is an art museum in Denmark by Tony Fretton Architects, at 6/4. A shopping centre in Liverpool, an office block in the City of London and a health centre in Kentish town complete the shortlist.

Ruth Reed, the Riba president, explained said the alleged bias towards contemporary architecture was explained by the fact that very few traditional buildings were entered, and she said clients rarely commissioned such architecture. She also claimed that traditional buildings were "frequently very expensive and often use unsustainable materials".

But other critics said the Stirling prize failed to reflect the high quality of work of some traditional architects.

"Dimitri Porphyrious is as good an architect as there is in the country and he has never got a look in," said Ellis Woodman, architecture critic at Building Design magazine. "There is a sense the shortlist is selected by people who are fighting a war from the 1980s [when Prince Charles first attacked modernism] which many people in architecture have now grown out of."

Sam Jacobs, a Stirling prize judge, said it was not the job of the prize to pander to popular opinion.

"You would get a similar response to this poll if you put the shortlist for the Turner prize or the Mercury music prize to the British public," he said. "But these are prizes that are intended to help develop their arts. The Stirling prize is not about what is the most popular building."