Battersea South campus | Herzog & de Meuron

Herzog & de Meuron has won the invited competition to appoint architects for its new state-of-the-art £108m Battersea South campus.
The acclaimed practice, a laureate of both the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the Praemium
Imperiale, was the clear choice of the competition jury, who assessed an exceptional shortlist of seven international architectural practices.
The competition – for a strategic design approach to a new centre for the world’s pre-eminent art and design university’s Battersea campus – was distinctive for its strong engagement with the existing College buildings and wider surroundings in Battersea.

The RCA is transforming into a dynamic STEAM-focused graduate university (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics/Medicine), expanding its research and knowledge exchange centres into the domains of computer and materials science, the impact of the digital economy, advanced manufacturing and intelligent mobility.

Bringing together the worlds of science, art, design and technology, the RCA aims to make a
transformational impact in areas such as: connected cities; robotics, the internet of things and
intelligent mobility; and sustainability, mass migration and city design.
The Competition Jury declared that Herzog & de Meuron’s approach demonstrated a deep
understanding of the potential for Battersea, making new connections and foreseeing the possibilities for sustainable place-making. Their concept provided a clear organisational structure and showed an acute sensibility in mapping the complex objectives in the brief.