Practice behind univeristy鈥檚 award-winning Town House building among those on shortlist
Grafton Architects, the practice which last year won a Stirling Prize for its Town House building at Kingston University, is facing off against two other recipients of architecture鈥檚 top gong on a shortlist to design another building at the university.
Stirling winners Haworth Tompkins and Caruso St John Architects are both in the running for a RIBA competition for a 拢23.5m teaching facility located close to the university鈥檚 Knights Park campus.
The other practices on the six-strong shortlist to design the Middle Mill building are Carmody Groarke, Hall McKnight and Reiach and Hall.
The scheme will include a 200-seat lecture theatre, an exhibition space, specialist teaching studios with 鈥渆nhanced acoustic performance鈥�, a faith and spirituality facility and office space for staff.
RIBA said the building will be highly sustainable and will need to epitomise the university鈥檚 鈥渁rt school character鈥�. The winning design will also need to reflect this in the site鈥檚 public realm, which has been allotted a 拢1.5m budget.
The scheme is part of the university鈥檚 newly launched Town House strategy, which sets out an ambition to 鈥減rogressive new model of education鈥�.
The strategy has been named after Grafton Architects鈥� building, which also won Europe鈥檚 Mies van der Rohe Award. The library, exhibition, dance and teaching space is located at Penrhyn Road campus, about 10 minutes walk from Knights Park campus through Kingston town centre.
The university鈥檚 vice chancellor Steven Spier, who led the evaluation panel for the Middle Mill building, said 鈥渨orld-class architectural design helps drive educational quality and innovation鈥�.
Spier said the Town Hall strategy 鈥渆mbodies our commitment to embedding creativity, innovation and future skills at the heart of our students鈥� education鈥�.
The shortlisted teams will now outline their approach to the project, with a winner being selected and announced early in 2023.
Construction is scheduled to start on site in late 2026 with the building to open by September 2029.
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