The Royal College of Art has officially opened its new campus in the Battersea district of southwest London, beside its old premises. The Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron won the 2016 competition through a flexible scheme that would adapt to the constantly changing teaching and research programs of the RCA, an institution founded in 1837. The new constructions include: the four-floor Studio Building on Howie Street, containing workshops and a multipurpose double-height space called a The Hangar, characterized by facades of texturized bricks and overhanging external galleries; and the eight-level Rausing Research & Innovation Building on Parkgate Road, wrapped in vertical white aluminium fins. Encompassing a total of 15,500 square meters, the new volumes blend into the university complex, which features sawtooth roofs conceived by Haworth Tompkins.

Video

The Guardian: A slice of Silicon Valley – inside the RCA’s colossal new £135m building