London, UK
The Imperial West masterplan creates a new west London campus for Imperial College as part of a vibrant, mixed use urban quarter within the White City Opportunity Area. The 8 acre campus creates a genuine sense of place, with progressive redevelopment acting as a catalyst for wider local regeneration
Project Details
Collective Team
Our masterplan vision incorporates a range of academic and commercial uses totalling 111,000sqm including research and technology transfer buildings, flexible teaching and conference facilities, postgraduate and private residential accommodation, hotel and commercial offices.
These are supported by cafes, bars and restaurants, a fitness centre and nursery providing active frontage around a new London square.
Masterplan
Aukett Swanke won an invited design competition in 2009 to deliver a 3.20Ha masterplan for the new Imperial College Campus in White City, on the former BBC World site. The proposals introduced a new urban quarter with a wide mix of uses set around a new London square acting as a green counterpoint and focal landscaped space in contrast to the gritty nature of the A40 Westway, Wood Lane and the adjacent railway embankment.
The brief sought a masterplan with a rich mix of academic, residential and commercial uses set within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulhams’s planning policy and the Opportunity Area Planning Framework for White City. Our Phase 1 post graduate student accommodation (608 units) and key worker accommodation was delivered in 2012.
A hybrid planning application including detail planning application for three other buildings (Buildings C, D and F) and an outline planning application for the remaining buildings was consented unanimously by LBHF and Buildings C and D have now also been completed.
View of new public square at the heart of the masterplan
Our masterplan creates eight building plots set around a large central square; and a more tranquil urban setting shielded from the more harsh surroundings of major infrastructure.
Development of the concept
Site analysis
Massing and uses
Massing sketch with tall buildings facing busy Westway shielding lower rise buildings on the northern frontage
Aerial view
Wood Lane Studios, one of four blocks
Taller and denser mass were positioned along the Westway gradually stepping down in height towards the sensitive northern frontage, relating in scale to the Victorian terrace housing along Shinfield Street and towards the residential areas in the adjoining Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to the eastern frontage.
Wood Lane Studios, postgraduate accommodation for more than 600 students and nine key worker flats, was completed in 2012 and the Molecular Sciences Research Hub was launched in 2019.
View from tower over central public square
Molecular Sciences Research Hub
