By Jessica Pretorius
This August, David Chipperfield Architects won a Royal Institute of British Architects competition to design and re-build 35 Lincoln’s Inn Fields (35L), formerly the home of the Royal College of Surgeons. The competition was announced in February and had more than 100 applicants, which were judged by LSE’s Director of Estates Julian Robinson, Minouche Shafik, LSE Cities Professor Ricky Burdett, the former LSESU General Secretary Josie Stephens and Firoz Lalji, who is sponsoring the project.
David Chipperfield is a renowned British architect whose practice has won many international competitions. The LSE project will cost £120 million and will re-use much of the existing building in an attempt to be more environmentally-friendly. The project will keep 60% of the existing 35L, such as the foundations of the building and the facades. Much of the project will also be offset, to keep emissions as low as possible.
The new building will house LSE’s new Firoz Lalji Global Hub, a space dedicated to LSE events and extra-curricular learning both on campus and online. The space will include teaching spaces, conference rooms, data science labs, a film studio, a 350-seat theatre, breakout rooms, and a café.
Firoz Lalji is a Ugandan-born former LSE student, who has committed $35m to the project. This commitment, given via the Lalji Family Foundation, brings Lalji’s contributions to LSE to over $50m, which is the largest alumni contribution in LSE’s history. In 2012, the Lalji Family Foundation helped to found LSE’s Program for African Leadership, and he is also the namesake of LSE’s Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa.
David Chipperfield said to Architect’s Journal that the project “demonstrates how the reuse of existing buildings can be seen not as an obligation but as a commitment to a more resourceful and responsible approach to our future, based on intelligent use of existing material and cultural capital.”
Over the past 15 years, LSE has invested more than £500 million into re-doing its campus and is now focusing on transforming older buildings to help the University reach net zero carbon by 2030.
