At the Royal College of Art, Herzog & de Meuron Reject Bloated Luxury

May 25, 2022 Tim Abrahams KEYWORDS London / United Kingdom Order Reprints No Comments Architects & FirmsHerzog & de Meuron ✕ Image in modal.

The new Royal College of Art (RCA) buildings in Battersea are a quiet rebuke to the gargantuas of a previous generation of architects. Looking north from the fourth-floor balcony of Herzog & de Meuron’s studio building, one does not find a view of the river. Instead, all that one sees when peering over the top of the pre-existing RCA campus, which contain its painting and applied art studios, is the vast rump of the luxury apartment block that Foster + Partners built next to its own headquarters—both buildings that helped make the banks along this segment of the Thames an architectural free-for-all of bloated, glass-fronted luxury.

South London is not without hope, though. Herzog & de Meuron’s two new RCA buildings are not small, together providing 167,000 square feet of workshop, studio, and research space and representing the largest expansion in the 190-year history of one of Britain’s leading educational institutions. As a pair, the studio building and the new research building to which it is appended demonstrate the compatibility of modernism, architectural nuance in material and detail, and the creation of a walkable street pattern. The city of London has again been improved immeasurably by the work of the Swiss practice (designers of the Tate Modern and its extension), which has absorbed the city’s material culture and added to it so ingeniously. 

Royal College of Art Royal College of Art interior

Herzog & de Meuron's studio building at the Royal College of Art. Photos © Iwan Baan

The studio building, which runs the length of Howie Street and is legible as three staggered brick balconies on a plinth, is a straightforward success. It is not fussy or overly clever, but, instead, is generous and enriched by small details that give this tough building coherence and humanity. On the ground floor, entrances on the north and south sides provide multiple access points, enabling students to pass through the building on their way to the rest of the campus. Inside, the building’s heart is a 3,800-square-foot, double-height space with a burnished asphalt floor, called “the hangar.” Book-ended by enormous garage doors, the hangar can be opened up for exhibitions and public days and, in so doing, completely reinstates the severed Radstock Road.  

The building is not structurally sophisticated: it has a narrow concrete core and is supported on its flanks by concrete-filled steel columns that enable a relatively uninterrupted floor plate. The workshops are located on the ground floor with windows to the east, facing the busy Battersea Bridge Road and giving the public tantalizing glimpses of students using industrial equipment. Sculpture students, who occupy the floor above, said they “didn’t want to be in a goldfish bowl,” so this level has a ring of clerestories and several windows that are shaded by a brick trellis. The two floors above, which house fine art and design, are more extensively glazed.

Within these studios, the impact of the brick is subtly felt. The material evokes all manner of London structures, particularly the city’s ubiquitous 1930s apartment buildings with units that are accessed from exterior walkways. These elements serve multiple functions, providing not just social space but full circulation around the studios. Also important: the balustrades provide a sunscreen for the students working at the desks closest to the windows.

Royal College of Art. Gallery View.

The studio building at the Royal College of Art. Photos © Iwan Baan

The bond that the designers used for the masonry is quirky and clever, too, and offers a lesson in how the most simple material can be manipulated to create delight or intrigue: not so much what the brick wants to be, but how the brick can be fun. The wall’s headers are all pulled outward, creating an undulating effect on the inside of the balcony that provides an extra layer of visual interest for the students who will look at it daily. The treatment also provides the right kind of rough exterior for a street that was once lined with garages. What Herzog & de Meuron have done in detail is the same subtle game of push and pull that they have played with the volume of the building at a bigger scale. The central balcony protrudes to the west and is recessed to the east. The hangar space is effectively created by extending the street into the building. It’s a lesson for any student.

More tricky, though, is the research building, which is just as integral to RCA’s mission as the studio wing. Begun in the 1830s as a design school and encouraged to be even more of one when it moved to South Kensington (the area was planned by Prince Albert to provide historical insight that would help raise the standard of British industrial production), RCA has always been home to innovative design and this new building seeks to continue that legacy. 

The square-plan, seven-story research building is appended to the studio building, but is clearly distinguished from it with its greater height and recycled aluminum fins adorning its exterior. These fins run across all four of the building’s facades, and are designed both to shade the interior and to aid its natural ventilation system. From a distance, the fins place the structure well in the cityscape, giving it both presence and texture, but the effect when one is adjacent to it—there is a raised terrace on the fourth floor which connects the buildings—is slightly disappointing. The aluminum is thin and lacks the heft of the studio building’s brickwork.

Royal College of Art interior

A robotics facility on the new campus. Photo © Iwan Baan

Thanks in part to the shading, the research building is more introspective than its counterpart. A floor of start-up studios and offices rings the central elevator core and communal kitchen. It is a place where a range of distinct activities occur (these are kept more separate than in the studio building), and it is generously spaced and bathed in natural light. The robotics studio is on the ground floor, ensuring that equipment doesn’t have to be carted upstairs—but it is a shame to deprive the rest of the building of the drama of these moments. After all, the long, open spaces in the studio building, which are only partially divided, provide a theater of creativity that is a key part of the art school.

Taken together, the new buildings are overall a success—although, at $223 million, a pretty expensive one. It is perhaps at the institutional level that their effect is most keenly felt, however. Despite the school’s having three separate campuses (one at the Darwin Building in South Kensington and another near the BBC Studios in northwest London), there was no real masterplan for how they would develop. Herzog & de Meuron’s project, by co-opting several qualities from Darwin—a robust appearance and the use of shared internal space as a kind of creative and social condenser—has created cohesion across the school’s disparate parts. And, no less important, the two buildings have also made the Battersea campus infinitely easier and more pleasant to be in.


Introducing Jobbguru: Your Gateway to Career Success

The ultimate job platform is designed to connect job seekers with their dream career opportunities. Whether you're a recent graduate, a seasoned professional, or someone seeking a career change, Jobbguru provides you with the tools and resources to navigate the job market with ease. 

Take the next step in your career with Jobbguru:

Don't let the perfect job opportunity pass you by. Join Jobbguru today and unlock a world of career possibilities. Start your journey towards professional success and discover your dream job with Jobbguru.

Originally posted on: https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/15676-at-the-royal-college-of-art-herzog-and-de-meuron-reject-bloated-luxury