Royal College of Art - Kensington and Battersea Campuses
Royal College of Art - Kensington and Battersea Campuses
We have given strategic conservation advice for the RCA campuses at both Kensington and Battersea.
Its campus in Kensington opened in 1963, arranged around a Brutalist building by H. T. Cadbury-Brown (pictured above). This was conceived as a robust, multi-storey workshop for the teaching of industrial arts including textiles, furniture, ceramics and stained glass and was listed at Grade II in 2001. We first undertook an assessment of significance and reviewed options for the future of the Kensington campus in collaboration with project managers Gardiner & Theobald and architects Allies and Morrison before advising on a new scheme with Witherford Watson Mann and Clementine Blakemore Architects.
In Battersea, the College wanted to redevelop their sculpture school and a number of neighbouring buildings into a major second campus, combining teaching, gallery and studio facilities as well as commercial retail space. The site occupied a prominent position in a conservation area, and included a mix of early Victorian shops, twentieth century infill development and several large industrial sheds. Our role included analysing the historic character of the site and its relationship to the rest of the conservation area, so that architects Haworth Tompkins could develop their proposals. We then produced a justification which argued successfully for the demolition of the existing buildings and erection of a contemporary purpose-built structure. The completed building became the Dyson Building, which opened in 2009. It was followed by the Woo Building in 2015 and the RCA Battersea building in 2022, designed by Herzog & de Meuron.
Client: Royal College of Art
Architect: Various