The shortlist for the 2008 Riba Stirling Prize, British Architecture's most prestigious award, announced yesterday offersa diverse and intriguing line-up, writes Edwin Heathcote. It eschews the more usual collection of cultural buildings in favour of some extremely fine public structures.

That said, London's contribution to the list is headed by Allies & Morrison's meticulous restoration of one of the capital's few popular modernist buildings, the Royal Festival Hall. But it appears beside Allford Hall Monaghan Morris's exemplary Westminster Academy, a generous new school building on an unpromising site near the Westway. Denton Corker Marshall's exuberant Manchester Civil Courts Centre is one of the most ambitious public buildings of recent years, embracing an astonishing 47 courtrooms. It is a building of organisational and architectural complexity that has transformed the Spinningfields area.