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Ravensbourne by Foreign Office Architects

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Ravensbourne by Foreign Office Architects

David McFadden | architecture, architecture critic | June 07, 2011

The new Ravensbourne campus, a university sector college innovating in digital media and design, at London’s Greenwich Peninsula was just recently one of the winners in the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Awards 2011 (previously on Bustler). From a shortlist of 55 schemes, Ravensbourne’s building, designed by Foreign Office Architects, won through in the education and community category. Only recently, Ravensbourne has moved fromLondon’s suburb Chislehurst to this new building next to The O2, formerly known as the Millennium Dome.

Ravensbourne’s new building in Penrose Way opened to students at the end of October 2010 following a £70 million investment including £3.5 million from the London Development Agency (LDA), £5.5 million from the Department for Communities and Local Government and further investment from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), Greenwich Council, Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Skills Funding Agency. The European Development Fund also provided £1.5 million to create low carbon incubator space, incorporating new technologies and a suite of environmentally sustainable features. Ravensbourne had been based in Chislehurst in Bromley since 1976.

Professor Robin Baker OBE, Director of Ravensbourne said: “We are delighted that Ravensbourne’s new building is a winner in this prestigious awards scheme. We are very proud of our stunning new campus, and for it to be recognised in this way confirms the quality and ingenuity of Foreign Office Architects’ design. This new building has positively transformed Ravensbourne, enabling us to develop both as a higher education institution and as a dynamic destination for innovation and enterprise meeting the demands of theUKeconomy.

Alejandro Zaera Polo, Foreign Office Architects said: “‘We are both delighted and humbled by this recognition for a project which we feel is mostly due to the ambition and courage of Ravensbourne, who dared to embody an alternative form of education in design and media, and was prepared to take this ambition into an unprecedented architectural embodiment

All we had to do was to listen to these ambitions and act as an architectural midwife as best as we could into this birth. We hope that our research for this project will open new perspectives to a new breed of higher education facilities. All the crowns go to Ravensbourne.”

Photo credits: Morley von Sternburg

Source: Bustler

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After working at various design practices on a full-time and freelance basis and starting his design firm, David McFadden saw a gap in the industry. In 1984, he created an expansive hub for architects and hiring firms to sync up, complete projects, and mutually benefit. That hub was Consulting For Architects Inc., which enabled architects to find meaningful design work while freeing hiring firms from tedious hiring-firing cycles. This departure from the traditional, more rigid style of employer-employee relations was just what the industry needed – flexibility and adaption to current work circumstances. David has successfully advised his clients and staff through the trials and tribulations of four recessions – the early ’80s, early ’90s, early 2000s, the Great Recession, and the pandemic.