The student center of the famous London School of Economics and Political Science is named after its graduate - the Singaporean researcher So Sui Hock, who allocated a significant amount for the construction of the new building. This famous university, where people from John F. Kennedy to Mick Jagger studied, has not erected new buildings on its campus for the past 40 years. Therefore, the authors of the project, who won the corresponding competition in 2009, had a particularly important task - to create "the best student center in the United Kingdom."
The urban planning situation played an important role in the project. The London School of Economics campus is located in Westminster County, the historic heart of the city that epitomizes the British capital - and within the Strand Conservation Area. Of course, the authorities are monitoring new buildings there with special care, and it is strictly forbidden to violate the red line of the street. At the same time, the area allocated for the new student center is small and has an irregular shape, moreover, it is located at a crossroads. Thus, the task of the architects was to fit the building there so that it would smoothly continue the development line of several streets at once.
The architects of the O'Donnell + Tuomey bureau took advantage of the features of the “unfortunate” site in their project. The volume of their building is an irregular geometric figure with sharp corners, elevation differences and many faces tilted in different directions. Its dynamic appearance echoes the asymmetrical and even spontaneous historical buildings around.
The center is seven-storey, but because of the solid brick cladding of the facades, the division into tiers is practically unreadable from the outside. It is surprising that the idea to build a completely modern, even "eccentric" building in the historic district was supported by the city authorities. Perhaps a significant role here was played by its red brick facades: this material, known in Britain since the time of the Roman Empire, is still associated with London architecture.
Large glazed surfaces with fractional binding are inserted between the brick faces. In addition, solid masonry alternates with openwork stripes, behind which the windows are still hidden, and in the dark this brick lattice is beautifully illuminated from the inside.
Inside the new building, there is everything a student needs: there is an employment center, a café, a press center and meeting rooms for the local student union, a bar, a dance studio, a gym and even a Faith Center for adherents of different religions. All rooms are united by a central spiral staircase. As the architects describe their design, "space flows freely horizontally and vertically." Since the main entrance is arranged in the glazed part of the facade and is decorated very modestly, the space just as easily "splashes out" outside. According to the architects, their center has the adaptability of a habitable warehouse, and the choice of concrete, steel and wood for the interior, as well as the absence of corridors, underline this "industrial" association.
