LONDON.- Two exceptional museum buildings in Oxford and Berlin, a striking new art gallery in Rome, a skilful live/work development in Shoreditch and two schools: one an inventive and uplifting new build in London, the other a clever extension in Guildford, form the shortlist for the prestigious £20,000 RIBA Stirling Prize 2010 in association with The Architects' Journal and Benchmark.

Now in its fifteenth year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is awarded to the architects of the best new European building ‘built or designed in Britain’. The winner will be announced at The Roundhouse, London on Saturday 2 October 2010, and broadcast live on BBC TWO’s The Culture Show at 6.30pm, presented by Kevin McCloud.

William Hill is again offering odds on the shortlisted buildings. The six buildings competing for this year's title and their odds according to William Hill are:

• Ashmolean Museum, Oxford by Rick Mather Architects (William Hill odds: 5/1)

• Bateman's Row, London by Theis and Khan (7/1)

• Christ's College School, Guildford by DSDHA (6/1)

• Clapham Manor Primary School, London by dRMM (5/1)

• MAXXI, National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome by Zaha Hadid Architects (evens: 1/1)

• Neues Museum, Berlin by David Chipperfield Architects with Julian Harrap Architects (11/2)

Ruth Reed, RIBA President, said: 'The RIBA Stirling Prize celebrates architectural excellence and this year we have a remarkable group of buildings on the shortlist. Unique in the history of the RIBA Stirling Prize, three major museum buildings make up half of the list, showing us three very different ways of building - and re-building - museums and galleries. They are the fruits of the economic boom of the last decade and sadly may represent the end of an era.

This is also the first year that two schools have been shortlisted for the prize. They represent what all schools should be: light, well-laid-out and well-equipped environments in which all students can flourish. Investment in well designed schools demonstrates to teachers and pupils how much they are valued and has measurable impact – attendance and results rise; truancy and bullying fall. With the programme to improve our extremely poor school estate now much reduced – it could be some time before we see such exemplar school buildings on the Stirling shortlist again.

A commercial/private building by a young practice - a boundary-pushing take on the future of mixed-use buildings - completes the shortlist. It is one of three projects by practices that have never been shortlisted before. I look forward to the debate with my fellow judges about which project is the worthiest winner, and announcing the result in October.'

The 2010 RIBA Stirling Prize judges who will visit the six shortlisted buildings and meet for a final time on the day of the presentation to pick the winner are: Ruth Reed, RIBA President (chair); Ivan Harbour, architect, Rogers Stirk Harbour; Edward Jones, architect, Dixon Jones; Professor Lisa Jardine, historian and writer; and Mark Lawson, broadcaster.

Previous winners of the RIBA Stirling Prize include: Maggie’s Centre at Charing Cross Hospital, London by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (2009); Accordia housing development by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios/Alison Brooks Architects/Macreanor Lavington (2008); The Museum of Modern Literature, Marbach am Neckar, Germany by David Chipperfield Architects (2007).