Goldsmith’s is a campus with a potential to envy: most of it appears to be just another mixed bag of London architecture, but even the apparently residential terraces turn out to be occupied by the College. The Laban used to be here and it is highly questionable whether they should have moved or improved the campus with new facilities here rather than at Deptford Creek. But whether the College will realise this potential remains in doubt.
The most slaient building here is a recent work by Alsop — one of those ‘generic’ buildings beloved of universities, accommodating a mix of studios and offices (what they have in common remains an open question), one that is simultaneously asked to fulfil a branding exercise by standing as a ‘trophy’ work of excellence.
In fact, it is a rather early Frank Gehry exercise topped off by a wild, swirling Alsop sculpture (quite a feat for an architect to intrude upon an art college’s territory). In planning terms, the key to this castle-keep of a building is the links it engenders to the rear parts of adjacent terraces, thus fostering better inter-communications between these buildings. Overall, the building is an interesting exercise in branding and ‘instant character’, although its entrance canopy is a formal oddity and one wonders just how genuinely considerate the whole exercise is.
The
Goldsmith’s Library (by Allies & Morrison,
1997) is a simple, direct building of 1500 sq. m. of accommodation.
Internally, it is designed with economy and offers exposed concrete surfaces and natural ventilation to the users. Externally, it has a long, robust facade coping with the orientation and a busy road outside. The large fins are solar protection and stiffening for the glazing, but also lend image-quality to the building. As always, the design is elegant and well composed – the work of a firm who will probably be around long after more strident and fashionable firms have come and gone.