The Bartlett Hampstead Road | Hawkins\Brown

UCL Estates, working with Hawkins\Brown, has completed a series of projects to provide homes for the various departments of The Bartlett, UCL’s Faculty of the Built Environment while the remodelling of Wates House takes place.
The School of Architecture has moved to a pair of former warehouse buildings on Hampstead Road, just north of the main campus.
The Bartlett School of Planning and The Bartlett Library have both relocated to their new permanent home at the fully refurbished space within Central House on the Bloomsbury Campus.
Euan Macdonald, partner at Hawkins\Brown, said: “Working closely with UCL Estates and The Bartlett the fit-out of 132-140 Hampstead Road has been designed to provide the school with a temporary home that will not only support the school’s exemplary teaching and research, but also encourage new practices of teaching, research and collaboration within the robust shell of these former warehouses.
“Meanwhile, through opening up the original cellular interior of Central House and inserting bespoke joinery elements instead of walls, the space has been transformed into a welcoming, contemporary library housing The Bartlett’s extensive collection and a variety of study spaces.”
Alan Penn, dean of The Bartlett, UCL’s Faculty of the Built Environment, said: "We’re very pleased with the spaces at Hampstead Rd and Central House which have provided much improved accommodation for students and staff. We’re now very much looking forward to the redevelopment of Wates House which will continue the transformation of The Bartlett.”
The Bartlett School of Architecture will return to Wates House in autumn 2016. The entire building is being reconfigured to include significantly more studios and breakout space, encouraging collaboration across the school.
Central to the design philosophy is opening up the façade of the building to reveal the activity within. This has been achieved by placing formal and informal exhibition spaces at ground floor level, inserting a new staircase to open up the building’s circulation, re-orientating the entrance and expressing key spaces to give strategic views of London.
Meanwhile, the refurbishment and remodelling of Wates House, which received planning consent in July, is now out to tender with the main contract due to commence before the end of the year.