Winning design for the Firoz Lalji Hub revealed
London-based practice David Chipperfield Architects with Feix and Merlin are the winners of the design competition for the Firoz Lalji Global Hub, LSE's next major building project.
The Firoz Lalji Hub will house the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa, Executive Education, the Departments of Mathematics, Statistics and Methodology and the Data Science Institute. It will also include world-class conference facilities that will help to connect and engage our global community. At the heart of this will be an agora that will bring the world together, physically in London and virtually online, to discuss the greatest global challenges of our time, and advance lifelong learning, knowledge and understanding among our global community of alumni, friends, partners, students and staff.
When the brief for the School’s fourth RIBA design competition was launched in early 2022, over 100 expressions of interest were received from architectural practices across the world, and six architectural teams were shortlisted. LSE Director Minouche Shafik chaired the jury panel which made the final decision after presentations from the shortlisted teams.
Firoz Lalji, an LSE alumnus and major benefactor to the School, and his family have contributed $35million to enable the creation of the Firoz Lalji Global Hub. The building aims to welcome students, staff and friends in the 2026/2027 academic year.
We had a difficult decision to make as the quality of the submissions proved to be extremely strong, but I’m pleased to announce David Chipperfield Architects with Feix and Merlin as the winner of our design competition for The Firoz Lalji Global Hub. This sustainable design solution follows the ethos of LSE, taking an existing building and adapting it for the 21st century. I have no doubt it will further enhance LSE’s status as a university with a world-class estate that matches its global academic reputation.
This was our toughest competition yet! A multi-faceted brief and a requirement to deliver the School’s first net zero carbon building was a challenge for both the competing teams and LSE. As our last set piece project, it was essential we took time to get this decision right. We appreciate the enormous amount of intellectual creativity and effort expended by the competitors, but we could only select one winner. We believe David Chipperfield’s design was the most sustainable solution that achieved our brief requirements and provides LSE with a seminal piece of university architecture. It’s an inspiring design and I look forward to working with David Chipperfield and his team to deliver another outstanding project for the School.
We are delighted to have been selected by LSE to design the new Firoz Lalji Global Hub. We have embraced the ethos and mission of the new centre to address global issues through our strategy of adaptive reuse. Our project demonstrates how the reuse of existing buildings can be seen not as an obligation but as a commitment to a more resourceful and responsible approach to our future, based on intelligent use of existing material and cultural capital. We believe that the cultural and educational ambitions of the Firoz Lalji Global Hub are reflected in the design process itself the highly coordinated engagement of the team, client and context.
The whole process has been amazing, involving intense debate and the analytical rigour you’d expect from LSE. The journey has only just begun and my family and I are excited to be part of creating a building of lasting impact – both physically and academically – which will enhance further LSE’s reputation as a world leader in the social sciences.