King's Cross masterplan brings part of the city "back into an entirely new use"

This video spotlights the King's Cross masterplan by Allies and Morrison and Porphyrios Associates, which is one of six projects shortlisted for this year's RIBA Stirling Prize.

The 20-year-long redevelopment of King's Cross is the largest project on the shortlist, which is the focus of a short-film series currently being published by Dezeen in collaboration with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

The project has seen the transformation of a former goods yard and industrial site with approximately 20 new streets and lanes, 10 parks and five squares.

In total, 50 buildings by 30 different architects have been built and 20 historic structures have been refurbished to create offices, an art college, 1,700 homes and an art gallery as well as a cinema, supermarket, shops, restaurants and bars.

"The masterplan grew out of a process of trying to keep lots of the existing fabric and the laying out a series of streets and lanes and public sappers that thread through the site and connect everything together," said Allies and Morrison co-founder Bob Allies.

According to the architects, the masterplan aimed to set a framework for a new part of the city that could continue to develop over time.

"A piece of city is never finished, it will always have to reinvent itself," said Allies.

"We wanted something that was robust and that was going to last long after we were no longer around," he continued.

"King's Cross is in a way is typical of many masterplans because it takes a part of the city that was used for something completely different – in this case the railways – and puts it back into an entirely new use."

Allies & Morrison has been previously shortlisted twice for the Stirling Prize in 2008 for Royal Festival Hall and in 2012 for the New Court Rothschild Bank.

This video on the King's Cross Masterplan is the final part of a series on the 2024 shortlisted projects. It follows videos featuring Wraxall Yard by Clementine Blakemore Architects, Park Hill Phase 2 by Mikhail Riches, The National Portrait Gallery by Jamie Fobert, Chowdry Walk social housing in London by Al-Jawad Pike and the Elizabeth Line infrastructure by studios Grimshaw, Maynard, Equation and Atkins.

The film was produced by the RIBA. The photography is by John Sturrock.

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