Newly completed Students' Centre © O'Donnell + Tuomey Architects

Tour of Saw Swee Hock Students’ Centre by John Tuomey

Photos by Valerie Bennett

Meeting point: Architectural Association entrance 36 Bedford Square

Next in our ongoing 10r Series of events looking at institutions and developments within 10 minutes walk of Bedford Square is a site visit to the new Saw Swee Hock Students’ Centre at the London School of Economics led by John Tuomey of O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects who were selected following a two-stage international design competition in June 2009. The first new building at LSE for over 40 years, this vast new students’ centre includes a reception, offices, bars, a fitness centre, event and media facilities.

The building is designed to embody the dynamic character of a contemporary Student Union. The complex geometries of the site provided a starting point for an unconventional arrangement of irregular floor plates, each one particular to its function and each working into the next by an intricate system of trapezoidal spatial configuration.  Space flows freely in horizontal plan and vertical section, with stairs gently twisting and slowly turning to create a variety of diagonal break-out spaces at landings and crossings throughout the building.
O’Donnell + Tuomey

The Saw Swee Hock Students’ Centre is located at the corner of Sheffield Street and Portsmouth Street, just east of Kingsway, on the London School of Economics’ main urban campus: Site Location Map. It is a short walk south down the side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields from Holborn Station on the Central/Piccadilly Underground Line, or northward from Temple Station on the District and Circle Lines.

Image: newly completed Students’ Centre © O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects
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