HMP & YOI Stirling, Stirling

2025 RIAS Award
RIAS/TCM Capital Innovation Award
 

Public
Holmes Miller for Scottish Prison Service 
Contract value: Confidential
GIA: 10,905m²

This ambitious and quietly radical project marks a fundamental rethinking of custodial environments in Scotland. Designed with compassion and clarity, His Majesty’s Prison and Young Offenders Institution (HMP & YOI) Stirling offers a therapeutic, trauma-informed and gender-specific alternative to traditional prison architecture. 

It supports women in custody through spaces that promote dignity, equality and meaningful rehabilitation, and was built to replace HMP & YOI Cornton Vale, which had been judged no longer fit for purpose after operating on the site since the 1970s.

Working in close collaboration with the Scottish Prison Service and the Cornton Vale management team, Holmes Miller developed an entirely new model from the ground up – all while maintaining full operation of the existing facility during construction. The result is a campus of carefully arranged, predominantly single-storey pavilions embedded within the landscape, demonstrating a high degree of sensitivity to context.

The design responds to its rural setting and local vernacular with a calm and coherent material palette: sandstone-toned masonry, zinc cladding, and pitched roof forms inspired by traditional farm steadings. Generous courtyards and garden spaces form a continuous spatial thread throughout the site, offering light, views and a connection to nature in every direction. These open spaces also encourage movement, interaction and reflection – key components in the rehabilitative ethos that underpins the project.

Internally, the focus on equality and mental wellbeing is evident in every aspect – from the natural materials and colour palettes to the provision of private, safe and flexible environments that feel more domestic than institutional. The architecture lifts the spirit, treating residents and staff with humanity and respect in every detail, from orientation and access to the quality of daylight.

Careful value engineering ensured budget targets were met without compromising the project’s core ambitions. It demonstrates what can be achieved through perseverance, vision and a commitment to doing things differently.

HMP & YOI Stirling is a landmark project for Scottish architecture – a model of how public buildings can be both operationally robust and deeply humane, setting a new standard for justice infrastructure in the UK and beyond. 

View all of our RIAS Scotland winners here, and all our RIBA UK Award winners here.

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