Stirling prize for architecture: the shortlist in full

Fuglsang Kunstmuseum in Denmark by Tony Fretton Architects

The bookies' favourite, this quiet and unassuming building is made of whitewashed traditional local brick, and all the better for it. A happy mix of the agricultural and the civilised, rural and urban, this art gallery set in an old farmyard setting by the sea on the edge of Lolland, a 30-minute train ride from Copenhagen, is a fine example of what a good local building can be Photograph: Helene Binet

Free from fashionable conceits, here are well-lit and astutely planned galleries leading visitors on a walk through collections of Danish art. Views of the flat, wind-beaten landscape are painterly. This is not a particularly expensive building, nor a showy one; it just seems right in its setting. I like this; it makes for subtle architecture matter, and should be much liked by those who trek out this way by the roaring sea Photograph: Helene Binet

5 Aldermanbury Square in London by Eric Parry Architects

For: Elegant new 18-storey office block in the City of London. Nicely detailed, civilised ... Photograph: Max Fenton

Against: 18-storey office block in the City of London. Who will be sympathetic during a recession created in no small part by the gentlefolk of the City? Architecture is an emotional as well as a rational subject Photograph: Nicholas Kane

Bodegas Protos winery in Spain by Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners

A prestigious exercise by the ambitious Bodegas Protos winery, an enterprise that produces some 3m bottles of wine a year, this Richard Rogers-designed building houses the wine-making process along with a visitor centre. Under the building’s five timber arches – looking like exquisitely made aircraft hangars from a distance – are a wine-tasting room, dining room, boardroom and a walkway for visitors to look down on the hedonistic splendour of it all. The building has been designed to frame views of the magnificent local medieval castle Photograph: Katsuhisa Kida

The winery is a finely wrought building, yet I can’t help thinking that the concept of what such a building should be has yet to mature along with the wines it stores and displays Photograph: Paul Raftery/View

Liverpool One Masterplan in Liverpool by BDP

I don’t really know what to say. This is a very big shopping development with some flats and other stuff. It's slick; better than most. Some people get cross if you dare to question it. Stirling judges say that it's “vibrant” Photograph: Paul McMullin

... Move on, and let it be Photograph: David Millington/Redshift Photography

Maggie’s Centre in London by Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners

A thoughtful and appropriately caring building – a pavilion in the best sense – for cancer patients seeking advice, support and refuge set on a busy London road beside Charing Cross hospital. It's a reminder of how Rogers can manage a particularly sensitive brief on a small scale and modest budget as well as mighty airports, courts of justice, museums and galleries Photograph: Richard Bryant/arcaid.co.uk

A handsome orange wall wraps around a planted courtyard baffling traffic noise. It's a model of modest architecture in a decidedly shouty age; it would be good if more NHS design could be like this (see Kentish Town Health Centre, next) Photograph: Richard Bryant/arcaid.co.uk

Kentish Town Health Centre in London by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

While the future of the Finsbury Health Centre, an imaginative and altruistic building designed for the old London borough in the mid-1930s by Berthold Lubetkin, remains (unhappily) in doubt, the NHS maintains a fine tradition with the new Kentish Town Health Centre. Clear, rational, economical and plain sensible, this building shows what can be done in the current NHS climate. It’s not great architecture, but architecture shining a light in a dark political space Photograph: Timothy Soar

How on earth do you judge a decent NHS health centre in a pretty run-down part of London against a marketing-driven Spanish winery or a contemplative Danish art gallery by the sea? You can’t, of course, which is why the Stirling prize is so tricky Photograph: Timothy Soar