LDA Design has been selected to masterplan a university campus at London’s Olympic Park, featuring a museum, collections libraries and performance spaces.
A team led by the practice, which also includes Nicholas Hare Architects, will develop the 125,000sq m (1,345,489sq ft) campus for University College London (UCL), called UCL East. It will be located south of the ArcelorMittal Orbit and the Zaha Hadid-designed London Aquatics Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, home of the 2012 Olympic Games.
The UCL campus is part of the wider Olympicopolis development, which will also include projects involving the Victoria & Albert Museum, the University of the Arts and Sadler’s Wells. Talks are also
ongoing with the Smithsonian about creating a presence at the site.
The first phase of the UCL East project aims to create a collection of innovative knowledge centres, bringing together cross-disciplinary expertise, and is scheduled for completion in time for the 2018/19 academic year.
It will be a 50,000sq m development and will feature the UCL Museum of the Future, where immersive exhibition galleries will be created. A school of design, a centre for experimental engineering, collections libraries, and studio and performance spaces will also feature.
Boris Johnson, mayor of London, said: “This decision fires the starting gun on the delivery of detailed plans for UCL East, which we believe will be another glittering jewel in the world class constellation of intellectual and cultural riches taking shape in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.”
The LDA Design team also features BuroHappold, Momentum Transport Planning, EC Harris, Soundings and Studio Weave. It won the London Legacy Development Corporation competition ahead of shortlisted bids from Aecom, Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, Make and Allies & Morrison.
A detailed masterplan for the site will now be developed over the coming months.
