Safe, but not scintillating: Britain's best new buildings

The six buildings shortlisted for this year's prestigious Stirling prize architectural competition range from a tiny windswept Hebridean ferry shelter to the sweeping grandeur of the British Museum's Great Court.

The competition, organised by the Royal Institute of British Architects, examined more than 70 projects before deciding on a carefully varied shortlist. Safe, rather than scintillating, critics will point to a notable absentee - the Millennium Bridge, designed by Norman Foster.

There are probably three front-runners. The Laban Centre, designed by the Swiss team responsible for the Tate Modern makeover, is the one to beat. Here's a building of high design quality set in a grungy site next to Deptford Creek in south London which doesn't - to put it crudely - condescend to its surroundings. Its glass and polycarbonate envelope is muted, yet very crisp in outline. But the real brilliance is to be found inside, where the architects have modulated the spaces quite marvellously. This building feels good.

Ian Ritchie's theatre adjunct in Plymouth has drawn considerable praise from the architectural fraternity.

But the BedZed zero-energy housing project in Sutton, Surrey, commissioned by the Peabody Trust, is more likely to challenge the Laban because of the eco-agenda that drove its design: this is radical stuff and, because Edward Cullinan's environmentally riveting Downland Gridshell failed to win last year's Stirling gong, the judges may think it's time to pay more than lip service to an aspect of architecture that is much discussed, yet remains essentially "other".

The judging panel includes the former Elastica singer Justine Frischman and the novelist Julian Barnes.

Lord Foster of Thames Bank entered two projects, the second of which was the infamous bouncing Millennium Bridge - and the panel went for his Great Court instead. This seems far too cautious. The Great Court has a marvellously engineered roof worthy of Faberge. But its public space has little atmosphere and has certainly not become the predicted "must" pit-stop in the cappuccino corridor running from Clerkenwell into the West End.

The bridge, meanwhile, remains a sinuous feat of engineering. How strange, then, that the Tiree ferry shelter should seem the most adventurous of the shortlisted buildings. Skinny, rectilinear, lightweight, it is a perfect example of the modernist less-is-more mantra. It takes nerve to deliver such a pared-down building in such a glacially pared-down landscape and there's no doubt that with this building Sutherland Hussey, a young Scottish practice, has joined the big league of architectural innovators.

THE STIRLING SHORTLIST

BedZed Housing, Wallington, south London

(stands for Beddington Zero Energy Development)

Designed by: Bill Dunster Cost: £11.5m Opened: June 2002

Radical design that could strike a blow for the eco-agenda

The Laban Dance Centre, Deptford, south London

Designed by: Herzog and de Meuron

Cost: £22m

Opened: February 2003

Set by grungy Deptford Creek, but stubbornly refuses to condescend to its surroundings

30 Finsbury Square, central London

Designed by: Eric Parry

Cost: £25m

Opened: May 2002

Attempts to reinvent the modern office block in the setting of a traditional London square

Plymouth Theatre Royal production centre

Designed by: Ian Ritchie

Cost: £5.8m

Opened: May 2003

One of the favourites; has considerable support from the architectural fraternity

Ferry shelter, Tiree, Inner Hebrides

Designed by: Sutherland Hussey

Cost: £16,000

Opened: July 2003

Skinny, rectilinear, lightweight, it is a perfect example of the Modernist less-is-more mantra

Great Court, the British Museum, London

Designed by: Foster Associates

Cost: £100m

Opened: December 2001

Atmosphere-lite; has not become the predicted "must" pit-stop in London's cappuccino corridor