The Warburg Institute

 

The Warburg Institute

We worked as heritage advisors with Haworth Tompkins on the £14.5m refurbishment of The Warburg Institute, one of the world’s leading centres for studying the interaction of ideas, images and society. I

The project focused on the rear of the site, which is a 1955–58 building designed by the firm of Charles Holden. Although not listed, the Institute lies within the Bloomsbury Conservation Area (within which it is identified as a positive contributor) as well as within the vicinity of a number of statutorily listed buildings. By understanding the historical development of this part of Bloomsbury – a mix of early nineteenth-century terraces and twentieth-century university buildings – we were able to assess the impact of the proposals on the setting of the adjacent housing, which was judged to be neutral.

The project completed in 2024: along with essential upgrades to heating, lighting and energy performance, the project has given the institute a public, museum-grade gallery for the first time, as well as a new 140-seat auditorium, deftly inserted into the U-shaped courtyard, to host public lectures, conferences, concerts and films as well as storage and study spaces for archives and special collections - altogether totalling a 30% increase in student and research space.

Client: University College London
Architects: Haworth Tompkins
Photos: Courtesy of the architects