South Yorkshire's Magna science adventure centre, beat the bookies' favourite, the Eden Project, to take this year's RIBA Stirling Prize in association with the Architects' Journal.
The conversion of the former steelworks in Rotherham, designed by architects, Wilkinson Eyre, took the £20,000 prize ahead of six other short-listed entries, including the National Gallery extension in London and the British Embassy in Berlin.
The judges paid tribute to Wilkinson Eyre's ability to embrace a project on such a vast scale: The architects have responded with both suitably gigantic gestures, but also an attention to detail in the exhibition areas which combines a necessary robustness with invention and surprise.
The centre, likely to top 500,000 visitors in its first year, has element pods buried like glow worms in the black cavern of the former furnace sheds. Displays on earth, water, fire and air, as well as Magna's £37m aerial gangways and flying robot arenas have provided a hugely popular science experience.
