Playful, elegant additions to universities and colleges were the class acts to follow, while the newly opened Elizabeth line exceeded all design expectations
1. Marshall Building, LSE, London
Grafton Architects
A multifaceted concrete palazzo for students, a place for learning, gathering, sport and music whose design runs several gamuts – grand and intimate, formal and twisting, calm and energetic. It has tree-like columns at the scale of motorway structures, sweeping staircases, alcoves for study and an expansive ground-floor “student commons”. You sense that its architects enjoyed designing it and that its users will enjoy being there.
2. Elizabeth line
Line-wide design by Grimshaw
The Elizabeth line, when it finally opened in May, revealed an alternative universe of underground railway travel where everything is bigger, brighter and swisher. This is due to the sheer scale of the stations and to their design – unified and orderly but also curvaceous and a touch baroque.
