Vice chancellor, Kingston University

Town House is a milestone in the development of Kingston University. It meets our programmatic needs for a library and dance studios but also does much more for the university, as good architecture can. 

We now have an uplifting space where students and staff can study but also connect in many ways and thereby learn from one another and others’ disciplines. All of this in an inspiring, yet also informal, environment. Giving students the opportunity to benefit from being on campus was fundamental to the brief, and particularly important given our significant population of commuter students. 

In 2013 we decided to launch a competition in conjunction with the RIBA to find the best architecture practice to meet our ambitions. The £50m landmark building replaces a long-standing temporary prefabricated building accommodating student, meeting and office spaces. We took the competition route out of the belief that students benefit from great architecture and that it has a powerful effect on their learning. Kingston University is a sector leader in opening up higher education to a wide community and supporting social mobility — 55 per cent of our students are the first in their family to go to university. A world-class building confirms to our students, staff and the higher education sector the importance of what Kingston University does, and the power of architecture to help deliver our mission. It can’t just be Russell Group university students who deserve the benefits of world-class facilities.

 As a university that serves not only the Royal Borough of Kingston but the wider region, we also wanted the Town House to make the threshold between town and gown welcoming, and therefore for the architecture to be inviting. The building also enhances our campus, complemented by a landscaped area extending along the length of the main road and the cross axis between Town House and the main building. It is very energy efficient too, and draws people outside through its terraces and exterior rooms, and those outside in. 

We chose Dublin-based practice Grafton Architects from a five-strong shortlist and, in doing so, commissioned its first UK building. One of the qualities we liked was Grafton’s interest in democratic space. We sensed their proposal’s ability to respond to unforeseen challenges both during the design development and construction phases, but also as society and higher education evolve. We were certainly proven right about the former and are confident we will also be about the latter. To our delight, Grafton are this year’s RIBA Royal Gold Medallists.

To ensure the integrity of the competition design as it was pushed and pulled to construction, we retained the members on the jury as an adjudication committee. It met every six weeks, or as needed, to support the design and offer support and advice to the architects. We were fortunate to have a contractor, Willmott Dixon, equally committed to a quality building.

Town House will not only provide much-needed structured and informal learning for students but is a building for the whole community to use. Through Town House, Kingston University is setting the standard for architecture in the borough and also offering a world-class vision for the future of campus-based university education.

Director, Grafton Architects

Imagine a place where reading, dance, performance, lectures, exhibitions, research and learning happily co-exist, under one roof, and the door is open to everyone. This is the new Town House in Kingston. The juxtaposition of contemplative and active performative activities offers an imaginative approach to education as a process of engagement and discovery. Colonnades form welcoming meeting spaces at edges. Interlocking volumes move vertically connecting the building from ground to top. Activities are revealed to the passer-by. There are no barriers.

We were inspired by the progressive educational vision presented to us in this brief, the ‘open door’ policy, the wish to connect with the community and the town, the rich interactive potential of the various uses, the wish to make an open, welcoming and supportive environment for students and visitors. When we analysed the nature of the spaces required we were excited by the fact that 50 per cent of the space required is open plan. Our search, therefore, was to make an architecture which would reflect this openness. 

Town House is an open-ended spatial framework offering both generosity and flexibility in allowing the culture of this building to grow and change. In order to achieve this, passive strategies are prioritised to ensure comfortable thermal, visual and acoustic environment, where possible. Active/mechanical servicing is employed only where spatial, architectural and contextual constraints demand. The building achieves a rating of BREEAM Excellent. 

While the building feels permeable and transparent, environmental control is achieved through the use of ‘colonnade’ and ‘ambulatory’ elements. Recessed on three sides to form gardens and colonnades, the facades are open and transparent at the lower levels, becoming more solid at the upper levels where shading is required.

This colonnade plays a central civic role and establishes the important presence of this new university building within the public realm. The public foreground of the building forms one of a series of new public spaces and revitalised landscapes which stretch along the full 200m length of the university frontage to Penrhyn Road. This concept follows the classical tradition of the ‘portico’, emphasising a primary frontal relationship with this most public thoroughfare connecting to Kingston town centre. External terraces, walkways and balconies elevated above the street animate the facade and display the vibrant life of the university to the outside world. New and existing landscaping is integrated throughout, including the retention of existing trees, the planting of vines on the west facade, and a series of stepped roof gardens with both green and brown roof technology.

The educational vision and ethos of this building is uniquely rich and progressive. Unexpected adjacencies are set up by virtue of the programme given to us by the university. The library facility is twinned with dance studios, performance and event spaces. The building is a democratic open infrastructure, a labyrinth of interlocking volumes, maintaining the feeling of being in one unified environment where these opposites can happily co-exist. The 15m × 6m structure is ‘elemental’ and expressive, making ‘loft’ type or ‘workshop’ type spaces. 

The building is a warehouse of ideas.

Managing director, London and 
 South East region, Willmott Dixon

Willmott Dixon has a long track record of enhancing university estates to transform them into world leaders. Our expertise in this field was underlined when we took on the multi-million-pound contract to construct Kingston University’s Town House.

The vision was to create a front door to the community and replace the university’s old, 3000 sqm prefabricated temporary meeting and office space on Penrhyn Road with a 9,400 sqm bespoke, landmark building that complemented nearby architecture. 

The design, which reflects the external cloisters seen in Northern European architecture, features a considerable amount of open space to create a real sense of fluidity. Alongside this, a matrix of interlocking spaces weaves together, creating secluded corners for study, collaborative working and community groups. 

The contract was awarded to Willmott Dixon in December 2016 and construction started in April 2017. Due to its bespoke nature, the construction was extremely complex so great care had to be taken to ensure the lines of communication were open with our supply chain at all times. 

We wanted this project to be BIM Level 2, so fortnightly design meetings were held between precast frame supplier PCE and mechanical and electrical specialists DES Group and CMB Engineering. Together the team was able to incorporate the completed M&E design within the frame immediately. These meetings continued throughout to manage clash detection.

The precast-concrete frame is integral to Town House’s design. Exposed concrete runs throughout the entirety of the building and there are no surface fixings meaning it is open to close scrutiny. Perfection was paramount — there was no room for blemishes or air pockets, which would have impacted on the sleek finish. This was one reason behind using precast concrete rather than cast in-situ reinforced concrete.

Initially we looked at how we could work around the design. There were a lot of onsite constraints as it is quite a small plot. We recognised quite early on that using precast concrete was the best way forward for the frame. Normally, one of the factors that helps sway the decision to use precast concrete is the amount of repetition through the design. However, at Town House there is very little repetition. Ductwork for services, pipes, cables and communications is cast within each structural member. There are hardly any two sections the same. The goodwill of our neighbours, avoiding disturbing residents and the day-to-day working of the university, as well as the speed of erection, were also much more attractive benefits of the precast solution.

Although the building is mostly precast concrete, in a nod to the building’s surroundings, there is a traditional hand-laid full brick finish to the cladding panels across the exterior elevations as well as sections of Portland stone. 

The building is rated BREEAM Excellent for its sustainability and includes SUDS, underfloor heating, and roof gardens.

Town House was a hugely ambitious project — one we fully embraced. It’s testament to the team’s dedication that the original design has been realised to such exacting standards.

Leader of the council, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

Town House is a cornerstone of a new vision for Kingston University, encouraging informal learning and creating stronger links between the university and the town centre. As well as being the new front door to the university, Town House is a genuine gateway to Kingston upon Thames and as such offers dynamic new opportunities for partnership. The relationship between the university and council has never been stronger and we are now truly becoming ‘town with gown’ rather than ‘town and gown’.

As well as amplifying the university’s place at the heart of the Royal Borough of Kingston, Town House will put the borough firmly on the map as a centre for learning, and a sought-after destination for those considering their higher education choices. Offering a cultural and educational hub for students, staff, alumni and the local community alongside one another, Town House enhances the university’s presence within the area, and lends it a new and multifunctional civic presence.

Everyone at the university has been working incredibly hard with the council, businesses and residents, to ensure that Town House responds not just to the needs of the university, but that it is both an asset, and catalyst for collaboration, for the whole community. It has been a great partnership to be a part of because we all care deeply about Kingston, how the place looks and how it feels and we are all passionate about its future and how we can strive to make the town better in a united way. 

The days when the councils ran everything are long gone. Partnerships are vital to the borough and we can only deliver the services we need by working collaboratively. The university is a key partner and, as a university town, the process behind Town House has brought conversations about the advantages of this to the forefront of our thinking, and in particular how we can make Kingston a more integrated, innovative location for people to live and to learn in.

Kingston University contributes a lot to the community, often more than people realise. The Town House project has made the links, and the working relationship between the council and the university, stronger and more successful than ever. It has also helped us as organisations to reach a greater level of understanding of one another. Town House itself makes what the university brings to the borough, and the contribution that students bring to the local area, much more transparent and visible, at both an organisational and community level.

As a result of all the direct consultation, and partnership working, Town House really does respond to the needs of the university and the wider community at once. It’s a fantastic building for everybody to use, and because of this, it is connecting our vibrant student population with the town in a way that has never been achieved before.

Final-year Civil Engineering BEng (Hons) student

The part of Town House that’s most important to me is the new library. It is a free-flowing library, with cafés and dance and drama studios around it. It’s a lot more spacious than the previous library in the main building and has more computers available. I need a computer to study, at the same time as keeping a check on other areas of my work, and most of my friends study this way as well.

As well as being more spacious, Town House is better ventilated. The building has more fresh air, lots of natural light and there is more room to move around while you are studying. It has had a positive effect on the kind of work I produce, and how long I study in the library for, as it’s a more open and social space to spend time in. Town House is more welcoming than the previous library space, it feels more like a place you want to visit for a coffee and a sit down as well as to study. I live close by in student accommodation, but most of my friends are commuters. We all tend to use Town House now as our common space.

The library is arranged over three floors, with a floor for group work, a quiet floor, and a silent floor. I spend most of my time on the quiet floor; there is not too much noise to interfere with my concentration, but I can turn around and talk to others when I need to. In civil engineering you do need your own study time to learn the concepts, but you also need to interact with other students. When you’re working on a project your friend might look at a problem from a different angle or might see something that you’ve missed, and the open design of Town House really encourages this kind of interaction.

On our course we work on really interesting projects, and our tutors are always trying to prepare us for the working world. In real life you do work by yourself as well as on wider project teams and the Town House environment provides us with the space and opportunity to do both.

The previous library space was mainly used by students, but Town House feels more universal. I have noticed lecturers walking around on visits, but I’ve also seen a lecturer using Town House for marking papers. I’m happy that it’s a community facility as well, I think it’s good for Kingston itself, as it’s a building that’s trying to get everyone involved, and it has lots of facilities with enough computers for everyone. 

I’m in the final year of my studies so I graduate this year, but I’ve already seen prospective students being shown around Town House and I think a brand-new building like this will definitely have an influence on people’s choices about coming to Kingston to study.

Design director, AKT II

In 2015, our team was one of five shortlisted to produce design proposals for this building. From the very earliest conversations, the team looked to develop a design that responded in a holistic way to what was a very complex brief. 

The university’s existing campus buildings did not give a strong sense of presence within the urban fabric of Kingston and it was critical the new building would engage with the public with the clear aim of opening up learning opportunities for all. To achieve this, the building required a calm yet striking demeanour that invited interaction with student users and the public. Spaces within the building had to continue and expand on this interrelationship and deliver a programme of activities of enormous diversity. The final design houses lecture spaces, study rooms, dance studios, an auditorium and a library, produced as a three-dimensional matrix within one singular complex space.

The 300-seat auditorium demanded the longest span of any of the functionalities and this was in many ways the starting point for developing the structural response at competition stage. The question was could we avoid transfer beams and deliver long-span flexible spaces with an affordable structural system. To resolve this, we adapted technologies developed initially to provide column-free car parks — some of the most utilitarian of buildings. From this seed, ideas began to germinate for an integrated response that resolved the urban, space-planning, architectural, MEP and sustainability agendas collectively.

Utilising bespoke prestressed double T units for the main flooring system allowed us to minimise the amount of concrete necessary for these long spans while maximising the surface area, and hence optimal thermal radiance area, which was used within the energy strategy for the building. Cooling pipes were attached to the top flange of the units and cast within the structural topping screed, allowing active thermal interaction with the floor introduced via the floor void. The repetitive nature of the ribbed floor — the most prolific structural element — made precasting a natural solution for the structure of the project.

During the two-stage procurement process, AKT developed its designs in close collaboration with PCE, Willmott Dixon’s preferred subcontractor, to ensure buildability was considered and embedded within the details of the design developed for construction. This included all the high-quality exposed architectural concrete of the colonnades and mullions. In all there are over 200 precast double T units, 300 beam and column sections, 175 architectural mullions, as well as solid precast core walls. The move to wholesale offsite construction allowed the opportunity for significant programme reduction and minimised disruption for the university and students, while simultaneously reducing waste and construction vehicle movements. 

The approach is unique for a building of this complexity and underpins the versatility of an offsite approach that flies in the face of common perception. Offsite construction also allowed us to achieve an accuracy in construction tolerance that sits comfortably alongside the pristine detailing of Grafton’s architecture.