Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- It looks like a controlled avalanche of ice. A floating canopy of glass sweeps down the side of the hill. This isn't a bird, it isn't a plane (though it resembles both.) This is a ski-lift station for the 21st century, designed by architect Zaha Hadid.

It is one of four futuristic stops on the Nordpark Cable Railway up to the skiing peaks near Innsbruck in Austria. Hadid's construction is in the running for the U.K.'s premier architecture prize which is awarded tomorrow.

The award is open to projects by members of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Iraqi-born Hadid, the 2004 Pritzker Prize winner based in Britain, could be a favorite because this is the last year that buildings in mainland Europe are eligible, and many of her projects are outside the U.K.

It is notoriously hard to predict the Stirling's result, though on grounds of aesthetic adventurousness Hadid wins hands down. Her stations are incredibly elegant. She describes them as ``global benchmarks in double curvature glass.'' The apparently seamless morphology is inspired by natural ice formations.

Think of the very best new buildings by British architects and a few prominent ones leap to mind: Wembley Stadium by Norman Foster, Heathrow Terminal 5 by Richard Rogers. Neither of these are in the running. Rogers won for his Barajas Terminal 4 in Madrid in 2006. Instead, the judges have shortlisted some less obvious yet still amazing buildings, and not just Hadid's stations.

The entries are all so different that it will be difficult to know how to judge them.

Another transport-linked project is in contention: the transport hub for the Metro, buses and taxis at Bijlmer, southeast of Amsterdam, Netherlands, designed by Nicholas Grimshaw (the President of the Royal Academy of Arts).

Soaring Steel

The Grimshaw building has a soaring exposed steel structure that provides top lit halls for escalators. Grimshaw deserves recognition for his ingenuity of construction that didn't disturb the day-to-day running of existing transport. (Some lessons for other cities here?)

The four other entries are all in the U.K., with the largest being the Law Courts complex in Manchester: some 47 courts and 75 consultation rooms are piled into an irregular tower in the heart of the city. The architect is Denton Corker Marshall -- an international practice with much work in Australia and China -- which was recently selected by English Heritage to design the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre.

Glass Walls

The Manchester tower with its atria and glass walls claims to make the process of justice fashionably more transparent and accessible.

It is the arrival of Britain's City Academies that has given architects more scope to impress the young, and the Westminster Academy by architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, also shortlisted, is an impressive home for 1,175 inner-city students. They are greeted by a mural on a concrete wall that welcomes them in several languages. Lunch is served in the rooftop dining room overlooking traffic from the main Westway highway out of London.

Housing just south of Cambridge's Botanic Gardens by architects Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios is a somber series of low-rise brick terraces called ``Accordia.''

The last entry is an odd one, because it is a building that was completed in 1951 and is listed for the success of its transformational restoration.

Renewed Icon

``Icon'' is an overused word, though London's Royal Festival Hall is one. The recent changes by architects Allies and Morrison have renewed the original clarity of the spacious design.

The prize, named in honor of the late post-modernist architect James Stirling, is now in its 13th year. The award ceremony will be the new BT Convention Centre on the King's Waterfront, Liverpool, the 2008 European City of Culture.

The center opened in January and is itself a striking design by award-winning architects Wilkinson Eyre, much praised for its green credentials: All the toilets flush with collected rainwater.

The shortlisted projects are judged for their aesthetic quality, green values and sustainability and this year a new criterion -- something called ``design inclusivity.''

(Colin Amery is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Colin Amery in London at colinamery@yahoo.com.

Last Updated: October 9, 2008 19:48 EDT