The Mayor of London has granted planning permission for the University College London East development site in Stratford, near The London Stadium. The £200m construction is due to start in 2019 and will consist of two buildings totaling over 50,000 square meters, making it the largest expansion for UCL since the university was founded nearly 200 years ago.
The first building ‘Marshgate 1’ will be situated on the riverside, opposite the Arcelor Mittal Orbit and incorporate spaces for public use and engagement.
Cross section of the 35,000m2 research, innovation and teaching building dubbed ‘Marshgate 1’ designed by Stanton Williams
Key Features:
Marshgate 1 has a series of interconnecting spaces for academic and public use, opening onto the riverside:
• Public space to occupy over 4,000m²
• Academic space, including a level dedicated to specialist labs
• Administrative space, supporting staff and academic functions
• Shared amenities, offering a cafe as well as community and engagement spaces
• Flexible, adaptable and sustainable design rated BREEAM ‘Excellent’.
The first 2 floors of the building will be a ‘Fluid Zone’ is made up of a publicly accessible ground and first floor. It aims to blur public and private boundaries and has a strong connection with the public landscape around the building. Using the analogy of streets and courtyards a plan has been developed around a series of generous internal ‘streets’ and a central ‘courtyard’, all open and accessible from the external public realm and responding to the access and hierarchy of movement across the wider site. These spaces are fully accessible and capable of supporting a range of different activities and events including, at the heart of the building, the potential for a central public space where vertical connections into the higher levels create glimpses of the academic neighbourhoods above.
The second new building of University College London East has been named ‘Pool Street West’, and will bring together academic spaces, student accommodation and local amenities. Designed by architects Lifschutz Davidson.
Pool Street West
Key Features:
Pool Street West has academic floorspace of circa 5,000 m²
• Student residential floorspace of circa 13,000 m² with up to about 500 student study bedrooms (including wheelchair accessible and adaptable rooms)
• 3 levels of academic space at the lower levels, terrace level and residential space in two towers above this
• Provision of shared amenity space, community and engagement uses, retail and commercial spaces.
• Flexible, adaptable and sustainable design that achieves as a minimum a rating of BREEAM ‘Excellent’
Tenders have gone out to five firms: Laing O’Rourke, Bouygues, Lendlease, Sir Robert McAlpine and Mace, with the contract expected to be announced this summer.
