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Location: Aldgate, London
Client: London Metropolitan University
Value: £1.3m
Status: Completed November 2012
Awards: ‘Development of the Year’ at the CIH UK Housing Award small schemes category (Won)
‘Best Small Development’ at the Affordable Home Ownership Awards (Won)
Solent Design Awards (Shortlisted)
London Metropolitan University ASD
Under the new name of 'The Cass', previously disparate art, design and architecture departments have been bought together under one roof. This project marks the first phase of an exciting programme to create a bespoke new home for the faculty within the University's Aldgate campus. We were appointed as lead of a full consultant team and worked in close collaboration with the London Met’s academic team, the Architecture Research Unit (ARU) to develop their concept from Stage B to Stage D. Subsequently we were novated to the main contractor to deliver the project on site.
The ARU had carried out extensive research, and developed a brief and design concepts for their new home. It was our and the consultant team’s task to develop these concepts for construction. Crucial to the role was performing the task of mediator; carefully and diplomatically working to successfully deliver the project for the university, whilst satisfying the ambitions of the end-user stakeholder.
The building has been fully stripped back to its shell. New structural voids through the existing slabs for new staircase connections encourage communication between floors and a sense of shared identity. New circulation ‘streets’, WCs and open and enclosed studios have been sensitively inserted.
The design is composed of a palette of high quality joinery, exposed services and self-finished, found surfaces. The new insertions have the bold robustness necessary of an art school, yet are detailed with care and simplicity that compliments the light and sensitive approach to the localised ‘making good’ and finishing of existing elements.
The development of a design that could successfully be implemented within an
occupied building was a key feature of the project. The design team considered this aspect from the earliest stages of the project. A logistics plan was produced to demonstrate how this could be achieved and to ensure that tendering contractors made allowance within their tenders for the required approach.
Project Team
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