Goldsmith’s College, called the ‘home of Brit Art’ has outgrown its current site, based in a converted swimming pool. The new building’s remit must reflect the international stature of the Brit Art movement. Designed by Alsop Architects, the original concepts were deemed too expensive, but the final approved plans have found an effective balance, architecturally striking, but economically acceptable.

The building has been designed as a robust 7-storey box with an industrial aesthetic to reflect the studio space within. Construction is expected to start in the 4th quarter of 2003 with the completion of phase one expected by the end of 2004.

The first phase 3,600sqm building, located on the St James’ car park, will house teaching and studio spaces for the Visuals Arts Department, state-of-the-art digital media laboratories and a new research unit, the Centre for Cognition, Culture and Computation.

Comments the Warden of Goldsmiths, Ben Pimlott: “This is an historic moment for Goldsmiths and Lewisham. The decision to grant planning permission for phase one of the arts complex means that work can proceed on the most important building project that the College has undertaken, with potential benefits to students, staff and the community. It promises to reinforce the College’s standing as the UK’s leading university of creativity and innovation, and as a major global player in the cultural and creative industries.”

The design of the building façade posed a huge challenge. Not only did it need to be visually stunning but the client brief was for a low energy building that minimised environmental input coupled with potentially conflicting requirements of large areas of glazing! Cost constraints precluded expensive high performance glazing solutions.

As the project’s Building Services Engineers, Roger Preston & Partners provided expert advice after complex computer simulation to achieve the building objectives. This enabled the building to include a fully glazed North Façade required for the tall studio areas whilst complying with energy conservation requirements of Part L of the Building Regulations.

The building services were fully integrated with the building design to provide low energy solutions. These included use of the building thermal mass, coupled with natural ventilation strategy for the studios and displacement type ventilation for the laboratories areas. Well-detailed lighting and robust exposed services also feature heavily in the overall concept of the building.