The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) awards the Stirling Prize annually to the best building in the UK. We are delighted that our project of student residences for the University of Roehampton, Chadwick Hall, has been shortlisted for this year’s Prize.
Designed by Henley Halebrown Architects and constructed by Morgan Sindall, the scheme is set in the grounds of the Grade II* listed Downshire House and adjacent to the London County Council’s world renowned Grade II* listed Alton West Estate.
CampbellReith provided full structural and civil engineering design services for the scheme. Our solutions for the substructure zones on this site with very challenging existing levels were critical to the success of the project and had to be developed to be efficient and practical with all members of the design and construction team involved. Our 3D analysis of the structural frame achieved significant construction cost and programme savings. The 3D planning of the feature staircase and external brickwork support details were highly complex but achieved a stunning result.
Chadwick Hall comprises three new buildings, with a total area of 6,365m2, providing 210 en-suite student bedrooms. Each employs a distinct plan type – two are villas, the third a Modernist pinwheel plan. Two are paired around an existing historic sunken garden. The third lies on an axis with the sunken garden to the south of Downshire House.
The RIBA Stirling Prize panel felt that the development “has managed to create a welcoming and calm space by careful master planning responding in turn to the street and the listed building structures as well as the wider landscape and the modernist building to the perimeter of the site.”
In addition to being shortlisted for the 2018 Stirling Prize, the scheme has already received numerous accolades, including both Regional and National RIBA awards, a Civic Trust Award, a Wandsworth Design Award and the Wandsworth Mayor’s Design Award.
Photographs courtesy of Nick Kane.