The London School of Economics this week announced the winner of their design competition for a £90 million Centre for Social Sciences at the heart of their Aldwych campus as Rogers Stirk Harbour.

LSE director and jury chair Craig Calhoun said: “They have designed beautiful, dynamic buildings around the world and they offered an elegant, thoughtful submission to this competition. RSHP grasped that this would be a building at once for the university and for the city, an enhancement to public as well as academic space.”

While the scheme is at an early stage, the initial images look interesting in providing a piece of contemporary urban architecture for a 21st century university, with both intimate corners for academic exchange and also larger public spaces.  It will be challenging to build, being in the centre of the campus and necessitating the demolition of out-dated post-war buildings.