Reference visit to Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL

26 November 2025

In the ongoing difficult financial context for HE with the Post 16 Education and Skills Strategy White Paper talking about the unsustainability of the current HE funding model and proposing among other things, the introduction of a levy on international students which will further hit the sector financially, it was very instructive to visit a project that is all about doing more with less.

Matthew Goulcher, Managing Director at Levitt Bernstein was very open about the fact that although the architectural interventions in this sensitive retrofit project were limited to the roof and external walls, this allowed the provision of sustainable, energy-efficient solutions including passive ventilation for more than 90% of spaces. Much of the project was focussed on infrastructure, technology and landscape to achieve the primary aim which was to make the building work so much better for students and staff. The scope that was delivered belies the circa £10m cost and indeed delivers more for less.

Jayne Knowles, Dean of Art and Performance for Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges of Arts and the front of house team hosted the event with Jayne and Matthew each giving short presentations and co-hosting the subsequent tour. It was interesting to hear Jayne talk about the brief, which focussed on consolidating all aspects of stage and screen performance at Wimbledon. This required repurposing fine art spaces as performance design spaces and spaces for teaching acting. She noted that, as is so often the case, recruitment in the design disciplines associated with stage and screen performance has been very strong, while recruitment onto the acting courses has been weaker than expected. This has required some retrofitted spaces to flex to accommodate different needs, something that she said has been achieved successfully and with relative ease.

The tour included visits to a fascinating variety of workshop and performance spaces. It was great to see such creativity in action. Wimbledon College of Arts had done much of the puppetry research for the recent street installation ‘Herds’ in central London with the Elephant and the Giraffe being made at Wimbledon.

This was a very deft and creative retrofit which clearly benefited from a strong working relationship between the client and the designer and transformed an existing facility, adding real value for students, staff and neighbours.

Written by and images credited to Seán Wolfe.