The Marshall Building - London School of Economics and Political Science | London, United Kingdom | 2021

Architects: Grafton Architects
Lead Architects: Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara
Landscape Architects: Dermot Foley Landscape Architects
General Contractor: Mace Group
Client: London School of Economics
Photographers: Nick Kane

The Marshall building establishes a new presence for LSE on Lincoln's Inn Fields as part of this university campus in the heart of London. At 18,000 square meters, the brief includes lecture and study spaces, academic offices, the Marshall Institute, arts facilities, squash courts, and a 20m x 35m sports hall. The forecourt to Lincoln's Inn Fields and the generous entrances and newly pedestrianized streets to the south are landscaped in Yorkstone and create shelter, seating, and a vibrant public realm. To accommodate the diverse brief, a rotating structure transfers the smaller structural spans at office levels, to the increasing spans required for teaching and sports at the lower levels. Tree-like columns and beams direct the forces of gravity to the ground through the increasing outward spread of tapered branches. Under the branches, the Great Hall, a new social space for the university is created, a covered piazza with a sloping terrazzo floor.