Big news today as Herzog & de Meuron’s anticipated expansion of the Royal College of Art has officially opened in the Battersea district of London.

Characterized by a fusion of seven separate facilities into one combined structure, the new £135 million ($169 million) complex entails the creation of new social and educational spaces for the Sculpture, Contemporary Art Practice, and Moving Image departments as well as for the RCA’s School of Design. 

The 15,500-square-meter (167,000-square-foot) campus also sought to aid the shift in the 185-year-old institution's postgraduate offerings towards a more strengthened set of STEAM programs, which is seen in the addition of a new tech-centric eight-story research center, robotics hangar, and a center for enterprise, entrepreneurship, incubation and business support called InnovationRCA.

Writing in the Guardian today, critic Oliver Wainwright called HdM’s design “an apt reflection of the college’s split personality," adding that it "feels like a startup incubator airlifted from Silicon Valley, bolted on to a refurbished relic from London’s industrial past.”

Per the architects: “The RCA campus in Battersea is conceived as a porous and flexible ‘territory’ of platforms upon which the varied needs of the RCA curriculum are given space to change and grow, enabling the transformation of space as needed during this process. The studio and research buildings are designed as communities unto themselves — a place that encourages interactions between students, faculty and staff. Our intention is also to create a civic connector, encouraging circulation through the site and inviting exchange between members of the RCA community, the neighbourhood and wider city.”

The newly formed campus is adjacent to Foster + Partners’ longtime headquarters and will host the college’s nascent Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, which the RCA claims is devoted to that projects “contribute to improving people’s lives.” The college also says the interior fit-outs will be done using designs taken from its prestigious roster of alumni, and that its creation “will ensure that the RCA continues to reach out towards its local community.”

The opening now marks the official start of the RCA's new five-year plan that includes the addition of MA programs in Design Robotics and Gaming, an increase in scholarships meant to attract more BIPOC students and researchers, and the establishment of a 20-startup-per-year pipeline funded by a £3 million ($3.8 million) Design and Impact fund.

Additional information can be accessed in the video below.