The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the Elizabeth Line as the winner of the 2024 RIBA Stirling Prize. The monumental project is a collaboration between Grimshaw, Maynard, Equation, and AtkinsRéalis,

“The Elizabeth Line is a piece of infrastructure that has been transformative, not only for London’s transport network but also for many people’s lives, highlighting the role design plays in elevating our every day. It is also a recognition of the challenges that our profession faces today – the responsibility we have to rapidly respond to the climate emergency, decarbonise our cities and prioritise social and economic equity,” says Neill McClements, Partner, Grimshaw, on behalf of the line-wide design team including Grimshaw, Atkins Réalis, Equation and Maynard.

“We know this is only achievable through collaboration and the Stirling Prize recognises all of the design and construction teams that have come together to make the project the success that it is.”

Working across the Elizabeth line the line-wide design team of Grimshaw, Maynard, AtkinsRéalis and Equation was part of a wider Crossrail architectural design team, interfacing with architects across the line’s 10 new stations including John McAslan + Partners, Weston Williamson + Partners, Hawkins\Brown, AHR (formerly Aedas), WilkinsonEyre, BDP, Adamson Associates, Allies and Morrison and Fereday Pollard.

The Elizabeth line is the most significant contribution to London’s transportation in over 20 years. Officially opened in May 2022, after 12 years in design, construction and delivery, the new line is now part of the London Underground network, running 100km east to west across the city through 42km of new tunnels.

Carrying an estimated 200 million passengers per year, increasing the capacity of central London’s underground railway network by 10%, the Elizabeth line connects London from Reading and Heathrow to Shenfield and Abbey Wood, and reduces commuter travel to these areas by up to 30 minutes.

Commonality is central to the line-wide design for the Elizabeth line, creating an effortless travel environment that is intuitive, safe, accessible, and enjoyable. The line-wide consortium of Atkins, Grimshaw, GIA Equation and Maynard, interfacing with different design teams across the 10 central stations, played a unique role: developing a line-wide strategy that conceptually and functionally binds together the distinct stations along the network.

Commonality is central to the line-wide design for the Elizabeth line, creating a seemingly effortless travel environment that is intuitive, safe, accessible, and enjoyable.

Through an intensive and collaborative process, the team conceptualised an approach whereby individual stations respond with their own architecture to their individual contexts, while as passengers descend to platform level the manifestation of a line-wide identity strengthens through the application of consistent cladding, lighting, signage, furniture, and platform edge screens.

From curved glass-reinforced concrete cladding, to integrated technology and lighting within wayfinding totems, the line-wide design creates a consistent journey across the city, and ultimately, a new travel identity for London’s underground railway infrastructure.

Encompassing platform architecture, passenger tunnels, escalators, station concourses, signage, furniture, fittings, finishes and technology elements, the line-wide design design consists of two distinct languages: long-life architectural elements such as the tunnel cladding and flooring, and shorter life technology elements that service the station environments, housed in the platform edge screens and totems.

The consistent line-wide components enabled an economy of scale and the use of modern manufacturing, while their robust, self-finished materials ensure longevity. The separation of technology elements allows flexibility for the stations to evolve, ease of maintenance, and provides an uncluttered canvas for passengers.

Image: The Elizabeth Line by Hufton + Crow

Clémence Carayol

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