LSE_Public realm

ZZA has undertaken serial studies of student perceptions of the LSE campus. The 2019 research showed that a by-product of the School’s ambitious estates programme was to accentuate the gap that students perceived between the significant new developments on campus and the older components of the estate. In response, in 2021, LSE Estates commissioned ZZA to undertake an evaluation aimed at ‘Levelling up old and newer campus space: Scope to enhance user experience’.

The scope involved a review of all campus buildings (including the most recent), and all zones of external space around and between the buildings, from the perimeter (Kingsway, Sardinia Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Aldwych, Strand, Clement’s Inn, Grange Court, Portugal Street, Serle Street) inwards. The work was done as an expert survey, evaluating the buildings and external spaces according to systematic criteria that ZZA’s evidence base has established as influencing user experience. The outputs generated a ranking of assessed performance, for the buildings and external zones respectively, backed by detailed analysis, and identified opportunities to enhance user experience.

The work was highly influential in the formulation of LSE’s Public Realm Strategy that was published in 2022, with extensive sections of ZZA’s report to LSE Estates incorporated in that document.