RIBA Stirling Prize 2016 shortlist announced: Elephant and Castle's Trafalgar Place is up for UK’s best new building

The flagship housing project for the huge regeneration underway in Elephant and Castle, Trafalgar Place, has been shortlisted for the 2016 RIBA Stirling Prize.

Only six buildings are in the running for the prestigious award for the UK’s best new building - including Newport Street Gallery, the new home of Damien Hirst's private art collection in Vauxhall - and the winner is due to be announced in October.

Trafalgar Place, designed by dRMM Architects and built by Lendlease, is home to 235 flats. All have either a garden, balcony or roof terrace, and 25 per cent are classed as affordable.

The building has been recognised for being cleverly constructed from eight types of brick - each chosen to reference neighbouring buildings.

It also has a public pedestrian path through the middle which judges say feels like a refreshing change from gated and insular housing communities.

“The RIBA Stirling Prize is awarded to the building that has made the biggest contribution to the evolution of architecture in a given year," says Jane Duncan, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

“Every one of the six buildings shortlisted today illustrates the huge benefit that well-designed buildings can bring to people’s lives. As seen at Trafalgar Place and Newport Street Gallery, they can breathe life and kick-start regeneration in neglected urban pockets to create new, desirable destinations and communities."

The winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize will be announced on Thursday, October 6.