Acclaimed Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron has released new images for a new £108 million Royal College of Art Battersea South campus, which is the world’s leading Art and Design University. The plans aim to expand of the Battersea Campus that enables it to continue to compete globally and attract the highest calibre students and future entrepreneurs.

Herzog & de Meuron's design scheme will complete the most exciting phase in its 180-year history marking its transformation into a dynamic STEAM-focused postgraduate university under these majors Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics.

The firm won an invited competition in November 2016 by defeating top six runner-up practices including Christian Kerez, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Lacaton & Vassal, Robbrecht en Daem architected, Serie Architects and Studio Gang. A year later, the RCA has now submitted plans to Wandsworth Council for planning application with new visuals, featuring a highly textured brickwork on its facade.

The new images show that the building's floors are shifted with transparent floor plates and other brick-covered floors that create variation in building's mass, with an extruded sawtooth roof.

Sitting alongside the RCA's existing Dyson, Woo and Sackler Buildings, the £108 million state-of-the art building for postgraduate students and entrepreneurs will expand the RCA’s future in Battersea and deliver new studios, workshops and incubator units required to support its future growth.

The 15,000-square-metre campus will facilitate the provision of 10 new programmes and the College’s expansion of its research and knowledge exchange centres into the domains of computer and materials science, the impact of the digital economy, advanced manufacturing and intelligent mobility. 

"These areas of research and learning are critical to the UK economy, and the RCA has already attracted partnerships with world-leading businesses, including collaborations with the likes of Hyundai and Burberry," said the RCA.

The design of the new building also includes a new café and art materials shop with improved routes through the site which will all be publicly accessible. Other public realm improvements are also proposed.

"The RCA is committed to nurturing the next generation of creative entrepreneurs. We are thrilled with how Herzog & de Meuron have responded to our brief to create our new centre in Battersea to embody this vision, helping us to deliver transformational experiences for our students and ensuring that the UK continues to lead the world in art and design," said Dr Paul Thompson, Vice-Chancellor of the Royal College of Art. 

After winning the competition, Pierre de Meuron, Herzog & de Meuron said: ''we are delighted to win the competition. The RCA set a challenging brief to look forward and visualise the spaces they will need to deliver innovation and expertise."

"The Battersea site offers an opportunity to rethink the RCA campus and establish the patterns of connectivity and organisation that will make a successful building."

The Royal College of Art is the world’s leading university of art and design, placing at number one in the 2017, 2016 and 2015 QS World University Rankings by subject. 

Engaging in teaching and research, the RCA offers the degrees of MA, MRes, MPhil and PhD across the disciplines of applied art, architecture, fine art, design, communications and humanities. It offers 28 highly specialised programmes in Art & Design to over 2,000 Master’s and doctoral students and more than 800 professionals interacting with them – including researchers, art and design practitioners, along with advisers and distinguished visitors.

In 2016, Herzog & de Meuron unveiled only one visual and two renderings as related to the project. In the new images, the firm has now detailed the building and general plan layout with circulation routes, passageways, the relationship to its surrounding and detailed materiality.

All images © AVR London / Herzog & de Meuron, courtesy of The RCA

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