Kingston University, Town House

Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey

The Stirling Prize winning Town House is a £50m teaching building which acts as a ‘welcome’ point for Kingston University, connecting the student population with the wider community.

Designed by Grafton Architects, the scheme responds to the university’s brief to 'design the beating heart for Kingston University within a building worthy of the international stage', while also respecting the project's strong community access and sustainability priorities.

Stirling Prize judges praised the scheme for being "a theatre for life" and "a warehouse for ideas". Architect Lord Foster, chairman of the Stirling Prize jury, added the Town House "seamlessly brings together student and town communities, creating a progressive new model for higher education, well deserving of international acclaim and attention".

We were appointed to provide MEP, environmental, fire and lighting consultancy services for the project, and worked with structural engineers AKT II and the design team to ensure the building incorporates innovative environmental and engineering strategies that make it operationally efficient and easy to maintain.

The scheme achieved BREEAM Excellent in design, with its embodied carbon reduced through structural efficiencies and designing-out a carbon intensive basement. 

The building’s overall shape maximises use of natural light, with each floor-plate size and depth working to provide the university with a 9,056m2 area. The result is a contiguous space for learning and performance that can easily flex, without major re-configuration, to suit ever-changing and competing priorities.

Housing the university's library and archives, dance studios, studio theatre, adaptable learning space, two cafes and a covered courtyard, the building's innovative design has also allowed opportunities for ground-level access to be maximised along with views over Kingston from the upper levels.

The project is a great example of a collaboration that fulfils its brief, allowing the Town House to become a landmark building that will make a major contribution to Kingston’s townscape for many years to come.