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Queen Mary College has a number of interesting buildings on its campus, including the Westfield student accommodation by Feilden Clegg Bradley (2004); a student Union building 1999) by Hawkins Brown; a science building by Sheppard Robson; and a Library by Colin St. John Wilson (1989; Wilson also did the British Library); student housing to the south of Westfield by MacCormac Jamieson Prichard (1991); and a small graduate building (rather po-faced and sub-Libeskind, but not bad) from Surface Architects (2005; situated as one enters, adjacent to the canal).
The Westfield buildings are by far the most architecturally ambitious: 5 buildings and accommodation for 1000 students. Formerly a gravel yard, the site sits hard up against the main line railway to Liverpool Street and overlooks Regent’s Canal and Mile End Park. The buildings are set around simple garden courts 3 of which are four storey brick buildings, to the north is the 7 storey slab of larger flats (clad in oxidized) copper that attempts to dispel the noise from the railway. The Eastern block which contains apartments for visiting academics, a ground floor cafe, shop, common room and laundry, is clad in pre-patinated copper. The internal layout tries to offer as much internal layout variety as possible with 17 possible types.
The obvious comparison to make with the library is the same architect’s design for the British Library at St.
Pancras. The ‘bagged’ brickwork on the exterior is more timid than Lewerentz’s precedent of St. Mark’s in Stockholm, but it is the only example you will find in London and always takes courage to execute. The interior is comparatively cheap – and-cheerful, as one might expect for a contemporary university library.
(Of course the most lively building is Alsop’s cell & Microbiological research building, fuurhter west of this campus.)
This East End park is a fascinating example of regreening: an area bombed in WWII, grassed over, left to dereliction, and reinvented with the assistance of lottery money and the energies of a local charity (Environment Trust) together with the local authority, etc.
The Park sits alongside the Grand Union Canal, its linear development is zoned for ply, ecology, art, sport, etc. Since a main road crosses the park, it was decided to build a ‘green bridge’ (CZWG) so as to lend the park continuity (an appropriate and well executed idea that isn’t half as novel as it’s authors pretend) and which includes retail accommodation in glazed green bricks.
The Ecology Park includes two half-buried buildings whose open side fronts the canal by Jonathan Freegard Architects. One is an education centre and the other is an arts gallery, both trumpeted as having ‘been designed to be as energy efficient as possible using a ‘Passive annual heat storage system’ (PAHS). Another two are planned.