What would your dream building look like?

London's newly refurbished Big Ben - officially known as the Elizabeth Tower - is one of six buildings up for the UK's top architecture prize.

The Riba Stirling Prize is awarded by a panel of experts to the best new project each year.

Other 2025 finalists includes a research centre in Cambridge shaped like a donut and a London fashion college with a huge, lit up concrete staircase.

But what is architecture and why is it important? Keep reading to find out and check out some of the other weird and wonderful Stirling Prize winners of the past.

If you were in charge, what would your dream building look like? And what would it be used for? Let us know in the comments below.

What is architecture?

Barcelona's famous Sagrada Familia basilica has been under construction for more than 140 years!

Walk around any town or city and you'll quickly spot that buildings come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and styles.

Architecture is the practice of designing and constructing buildings, houses and other structures.

It is all about creating spaces for people to enjoy.

Architects need to think about lots of different things when planning a new design.

They need to consider issues such as its purpose, the cost and the impact the design has on the surrounding area - as well as the shape of the building, the colours and types of materials that will be used.

Five cool past winners of Stirling Prize

Did you know that over the years, a number of schools have been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize?

In 2015, a secondary school in south London beat five other finalists to scoop the award.

Burntwood School in Wandsworth took three years to rebuild at a cost of around £40 million.

Originally constructed in the 1950s, the new design was chosen as it best reflected the "campus" feeling of the original site, as well as adding lots of generous and light classroom space for pupils and teachers to enjoy.

Barajas Airport in Spain's capital Madrid won the UK's most prestigious architecture award in 2006.

If you're wondering why the building won the award, despite being located abroad, that's because it was designed by a British architecture firm, the Richard Rogers Partnership.

The colourful 1.2km-long Spanish airport building was designed to make sure there was plenty of light and space as well as great views out to planes and surrounding landscape.

After the announcement was made, Lord Rogers told the BBC: "We've tried to make it a place of fun as well as an airport."

If you've been to London then you might well be familiar with this futuristic-looking winner.

The capital's newest rail line, the Elizabeth line, picked up the prize last year.

The Stirling Prize is normally awarded to the country's best new building, but in 2024 it went to the entire 62-mile network and its ten new stations.

The line, which runs from east to west via central London, opened in 2022 and transports more than 700,000 passengers every weekday.

At the time, Riba president Muyiwa Oki said the Elizabeth line offered "a flawless, efficient, beautifully choreographed solution to inner-city transport."

London's famous skyscraper The Gherkin, officially known as 30 St Mary Axe, won the award in 2006.

Standing 180m tall above the City of London, the building has 41 floors and took three years to build.

The Gherkin's cucumber shape was especially chosen to help it be environmentally friendly.

The special design makes the most of daylight to save electricity and natural ventilation, meaning fresh air can move through the building.

As a result the skyscraper uses around half the energy typically needed by a similar office block.

Goldsmith Street is a collection of nearly 100 ultra-low energy homes, located just outside Norwich city centre.

The social-housing development was built by the local council in 2019 and won the Stirling Prize in the same year.

The seven terrace blocks contain houses with sloping roofs to maximise daylight throughout the development.

It was also designed with a community feel, with front doors facing each other.

Shared spaces for children to play together were also a big part of the design and parking for cars was pushed to the outer edges of the development to prioritise pedestrians.

If you could design your dream building, what would it look like? Let us know in the comments.