Lord Foster could pick up his second Stirling Prize, after he was put on the shortlist of six for this year's award.
The prize is the best known in British architecture. The only practice to have won it twice is Wilkinson Eyre, most recently for the millennium bridge in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.

Foster and Partners won the prize 1998 for the American Air Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire. It made the shortlist this time for the British Museum Great Court in London, which was completed in 2001.

But the practice will face stiff competition from five rivals for the £20,000 award. They are:

  • Bill Dunster, for the BedZED housing scheme in south London

  • Sutherland Hussey for the Tiree ferry terminal in the Inner Hebrides

  • Ian Ritchie for the Theatre Royal in Plymouth

  • Herzog & de Meuron for the Laban dance centre in south London

  • Eric Parry Architects for Finsbury Square office scheme in north London.

The frontrunner is thought to be Herzog & de Meuron.