Shortlist announced for UCL East master planners

A key part of the Mayor of London's Olympicopolis plans, the new campus - UCL East - will create new academic facilities and accommodation.

The five short listed teams are led by AECOM, Lifshutz Davidson Sandilands, Make, LDA Design and Allies & Morrison.

A pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) was issued in October 2014 to teams of master planners, designers and architects to create the master plan for the 125,000m² campus across an 11 acre site to the south of the ArcelorMittal Orbit and the London Aquatics Centre.

The five shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit formal tenders with the aim of appointing the winning team in April 2015.

A design competition for the Stratford Waterfront element of Olympicopolis is also entering its final stages with a shortlist of six design teams announced in December 2014.

Professor Steve Caddick, Vice Provost-Enterprise, University College London said: "UCL East will be a university campus of the future - open, connected with businesses and embedded within the local community. We are looking forward to seeing what the shortlisted teams put forward; mirroring this vision for how the new campus will operate in the way it's designed for the people and communities who'll use it."

David Goldstone, Chief Executive of LLDC, said: "It's great to embark on this latest phase of the Olympicopolis project which will see the creation of a new campus in east London for one of the world's leading research universities."

UCL East will provide 125,000m2 of space. The first phase of 50,000m2 will bring together expertise across disciplines, with the aim of forging new connections between researchers and business; fostering radical innovation, new insights and new industries. They will include the UCL Generator the university's first School of Design; the UCL Museum of the Future, a reinvention of the university museum for the 21st century; and the UCL Centre for Experimental Engineering, which will be established to address the acute skills shortage in engineering and develop new approaches to experiential learning in engineering, alongside prototyping and manufacturing facilities.

In addition, UCL Innovation will focus on technology development and commercialisation and UCL Living will comprise living space for undergraduates, postgraduate research students, as well as early career academic staff.

LLDC will be the Contracting Authority for the master planning, securing planning permission and delivery of the academic elements to shell and core.