LONDON, UK.- The Architecture Foundation received over 200 submissions from over 20 countries for Stage 1 of the competition to design the AF’s new building, funded by Land Securities. The quality was exceptionally high. The short-listed practices are AOC, Caruso St John, Foreign Office Architects, Graft, Zaha Hadid, Lacaton and Vassal, MVRDV and Bernard Tschumi.

The list ranges from a Pritzker Prize winner to recent college leavers, embraces several nationalities and reflects the wealth of ideas in contemporary architecture, and all the practices are yet to complete a major building in London. The eight practices will now develop designs for the building, and the winner will be announced in the New Year.

The £2.25m freestanding new building will be located in Southwark Street, London, close to Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre. It is conceived a place of energy, creative ideas and activity, where the public can engage with the best contemporary architecture. The new home of the Architecture Foundation will house exhibition space, events space, offices and a bar.

Rowan Moore, director of the Architecture Foundation, said, "This list is what we were looking for and more. Each of the chosen architects has the potential to create an unprecedented cultural building. We said in our brief that the new building should have the qualities of both a billboard and a chapel, to engage the public and create reflective space, and each architect on the list will respond in a completely different way. Whoever wins, London will have a building of a kind that it hasn’t seen before.”

The jury for the final round will be chaired by Rowan Moore, and will consist of Will Alsop, Chairman of the Architecture Foundation; Paola Antonelli, Curator of Architecture & Design, Museum of Modern Art, New York; David Chipperfield of David Chipperfield Architects; Nigel Coates of Branson Coates; Mike Hussey, Managing Director, London Portfolio, Land Securities; Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate Gallery; Jonathan Turk, Development Director, London Portfolio, Land Securities. The new building is due to open in Autumn 2006.