The practice beat off three other practices – Alsop Architects, Bennetts Associates and Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners – to win the contest.
The school selected Mace as project manager for the scheme and will undertake a feasibility study of a site at St George's Circus in Southwark, south London, which is part of the university's campus.
The National Film and Television School, whose headquarters is currently in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, is in negotiations with South Bank University to lease part of the campus.
A planning application is due by the end of 2002, if the present negotiations with the university are completed early in the new year.