RIBA Stirling Prize Lecture – Exeter

Restoring Big Ben with Purcell

This year’s Exeter Stirling Prize lecture tells the story of restoring a national icon.

Join us to go behind the scenes of the Elizabeth Tower, home to Big Ben, as we uncover a masterclass in conservation architecture & engineering. Beneath the clock-face lies a story of innovation & collaboration at scale.

Proving that conservation can be as ambitious as new construction, the Elizabeth Tower, has emerged from its meticulous restoration as a triumph of craftsmanship, collaboration & national pride.  A Stirling Prize finalist, the project represents the very best of what heritage architecture can achieve when guided by care, precision & vision.

Led by Purcell Architects with an extensive team of specialist craftspeople, engineers & conservators, the five-year project was as much an archaeological investigation as it was a feat of design & engineering. Every stone, every shard of glass, every cast-iron detail was studied, repaired, or remade with the highest fidelity to the original, ensuring that this most recognisable of landmarks continues to inspire for generations to come.

The result is a restoration that is both technically masterful & profoundly human, celebrating the enduring values of beauty, endurance, and craft.

Join Ed Harris, Andrew Dobson and Matthew Wittrick of Purcell as they reveal the complex story behind this remarkable project — from the tower’s hidden structure to its gleaming renewed façade — & explore how the restoration of the Elizabeth Tower reminds us that preservation, too, is an act of creation.

OUR SPEAKERS

• Ed Harris, Purcell – Ed is an Associate Partner at Purcell based in their Bristol studio. A design-focused architect with 20 years’ experience working in practice, Ed is passionate about the built environment, and the marriage of high-quality design, heritage, and social value in placemaking. His experience spans commercial, residential, education, cultural and masterplanning sectors, across locations including London, Oxford, Manchester, South Wales and Bristol, as well as China. Ed chairs Purcell’s ‘Design Group’ and therefore has an insight into design across the practice.
• Andrew Dobson, Purcell – Andrew is a Partner at Purcell and led the award-winning conservation of the Elizabeth Tower. With over 25 years’ experience in heritage architecture, he specialises in the restoration of complex, high-profile historic buildings, combining technical rigour with a deep respect for craft, authenticity, and the evolving life of Britain’s architectural heritage.
• Matthew Wittrick, Purcell – Matthew is a Senior Architect at Purcell with extensive expertise in conservation and adaptive reuse. As project architect for the Elizabeth Tower restoration, he coordinated the work of craftspeople, engineers, and specialists to deliver one of the UK’s most intricate heritage projects, ensuring precision, collaboration, and enduring quality in every detail.

This event is in partnership with RIBA and Avalon Planning & Heritage

Our talks are open to the public and professionals alike.
The event takes place at Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), Exeter, EX4 3RX