4th Year Summer Portfolio - Extension to King's College

Site Model of Victoria Embankment

1:500 Proposed Site Plan

Proposed Strand Elevation

1:200 Site Model

Model photograph of Quad leading to portico

 Strategy axonometric

Long elevation along Quad looking west

Ceremonial section through Research Building

Photograph of Senate Assembly Hall

Photograph of an academic's study

Detail drawings of relationship between stone facade and wooden interior of study

Collage of view from Inner Court to School of Humanities (ceremonial stair on left)

Photograph of Outer Court showing the revealing of the Holywell stream and a new route along Strand Lane down to the Thames

Collage of buildings in city showing the beating of the bounds taking place

Photograph from top of Strand Lane looking out onto Outer Court and the Strand

Axonometric

The rift caused by technology has reduced King’s College to fragmentary status in the city. An existing zeilenbau block denies the relationship between the River Thames, King’s College,The Strand, and the church of Mary-le-Strand. This current building treats the College’s Quad as a service yard and excludes the University from being a part of the social and intellectual life of the city

The Uffizi (G.Vasari, Firenzi, 1560) is a lodestar for this project. It’s cortile is formally identical to King’s Quad and acts as a hinge between the Piazza della Signoria and the River Arno. A portico defines this boundary between nature and culture whilst the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio allows for orientation within the city. The portico of Somerset House can act as mediator between River Thames and city whilst the steeple of Mary-le-Strand furfills the same role as the Palazzo Vecchio.

Two buildings are proposed: a School of Humanities and a Research Building. The former is linked to the east wing of Somerset House via a loggia which allows Somerset House to return to its original typology of three terraced houses. A formal dining room is located on the first floor has double height openings allowing an engagement with the city in the same way as the Loggia dei Lanzi.
Contained within this building are academic’s studies, wooden studiolo within a stone palazzo. The second building, centred around a courtyard, contains a bookshop, three research libraries, and an Assembly Room for the University Senate. A second courtyard is formed on the eastern side of the site. The side facing the Strand is left open. This formal gesture is to provide a pocket of space for public encounters on a bustling street and to encourage the use of Strand Lane as a connection to the tube station (Embankment) and Thames.