City University - School of Social Sciences

Status: 2004
Location: London

Client: City University
Value: £12.0m

 

“The lesson of this exceptional project is that architectural imagination, rather than imitation, is the way to solve the fragment condition of our cities”Mark Swenarton, Architecture Today

 

Stanton William’s new School of Social Sciences for City University unites six departments in an energy-efficient, flexible 7000m² building. Maximising a prominent site within the Finsbury conservation area, central London, it comprises in essence three blocks placed parallel with each other. The varied scale of these blocks respects and responds to their architecturally-diverse surroundings, which include both Georgian terraces and heroically-scaled tower blocks.

Innovative, fully-glazed ‘rainscreen’ elevations are used to clad the energy-efficient concrete structure. They reflect the building’s surroundings, provide the internal rooms with ample natural light, and offer views that connect inside and outside.

The whole building was planned using a rigorously-applied modular grid, allowing it to respond easily to changing future needs. Teaching rooms, research spaces and academic offices are arranged around the building’s perimeter. An eight-storied galleried atrium at its centre not only organises circulation but also celebrates it in forming a social heart for the School. The atrium also forms a key part of the building’s low-energy passive heating and cooling system. Conceived in close dialogue with the University and local planners, the completed building has met with a highly positive response from both the client and the architectural profession.

 

Credits
Project Manager: Gardiner & Theobald
Cost Consultant: Northcroft
Structural Engineers: Jacobs
Services Engineers: Jacobs
Main Contractor: Norwest Holst
Planning Consultant: King Sturge
Photography: Peter Cook