In collaboration with Witherford Watson Mann Architects, we have been selected by the Royal College of Art to renovate their Grade II listed building in Kensington, designed by HT Cadbury Brown in the late 1950s. Founded in 1837, the RCA has been located in a number of locations across London, with a significant expansion of its Battersea campus over the past 20 years. The college is now focused on the restoration of its historic home in Kensington, a project which combines the upgrade of existing building fabric with new interventions, alongside a wider ambition to reinforce its identity, culture and community.
CBA is leading on the detailed fit-out, with a focus on programme spaces that has been informed by a sustained engagement process with stakeholders from across the college. Writing in the Architectural Review in 1964, Cadbury Brown noted “That the inside of the building should be spare. Money should be spent on space rather than finishes. That as a place where art is in the continual process of being made, the interior especially should be plain, and that one of its principal functions be to act as the background to art and not to assert itself as an ‘art thing’…”.
