Universities as urban catalysts

First, is to recognise that no two institutions are the same. An institution’s ethos and origins – the complexity of its politics, how it is structured and why it is the way it is – all these must be well understood before diving into the design of a masterplan or a building. An arts university will have a very different way of interacting with the public than a more science-led one; or a large institution with ambitious growth targets will have distinct priorities from a purposefully smaller one. The architect is there to give form to institutional ideas and identity. So, it is important to understand the nuance of an institution, the characters involved, its complexities and constituencies, in order to be an effective designer or planner.

Higher education is growing too. The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) estimates that in the UK, there will be a need for 50,000 more student places by 2030. There is an essential requirement for new investment in spaces for learning and research and fierce competition is underway to attract students, staff and funders. So, the physical places for interaction, discovery and participation – classrooms, galleries and labs, but also those social spaces for the accidental encounters that lead to great discoveries – still matter.

Imperial College London

Imperial College London is a world-leading university in science, engineering, medicine and business. Emerging out of the legacy of the Great Exhibition of 1851, it has been located in South Kensington since its earliest days. In recent years, it has expanded to White City where it is building an additional campus to bring together academics, industry and the local community to co-exist and co-create cutting-edge scientific research.

Over the last 125 years, the South Kensington campus had evolved with many new additions as the university's fortunes grew. There are a variety of buildings of different styles and from different eras. A new masterplan brings coherence to future development on the now built-out campus, while identifying a series of discrete interventions that help to define and strengthen the campus public realm, making it more welcoming for both regular users and visitors.

University of the Arts London

The largest specialist arts university in Europe, the University of the Arts London (UAL) is a multi-collegiate institution with sites across the capital. Its six constituent colleges include Chelsea College of Arts, London College of Communication, Central St Martins and London College of Fashion.

A new twenty-first century campus for the London College of Communication will allow it to stay and grow within at its Elephant and Castle home. The College has played a significant role in the area for over 50 years supporting local communities, schools, business and residents, and currently has thousands of students and staff who are vital to the local economy and the life of the area. Built over one of the busiest transit hubs in London, a three-storey public space at the base of the new building will blur boundaries between university life and public life.

For decades, the London College of Fashion has been located in multiple sites across London, often dating back to their origins as trade schools. Our task currently is to bring them together for the first time into one purpose-built building at Stratford Waterfront. At the start of this briefing process, we undertook long conversations with College leaders and across departments about what this would mean for them. The process revealed many contradictions in the College's identity. On the one hand the creative process of learning fashion is very insular, fragile, but on the other, students have to put their work out there to shine, into the public sphere. How can one building do both? And how can the sense of richness from different locations be translated into a single new building? The navigation of these paradoxes needs to inform the DNA of the College's new home.