Royal College of Art

RCA graduates continue to influence the culture surrounding all of us. At the forefront of contemporary art and design today are, to name but a few, graduates such as painter Chris Ofili, designer Thomas Heatherwick, architect David Adjaye, fashion designer Christopher Bailey, photographer Tom Hunter and product designer Sam Buxton. Innovations such as the Ford Ka and Jaguar XK8, the PS furniture range for Ikea, Concrete Canvas – a shelter that will revolutionise disaster relief – and the Eglu chicken coop, are all the work of recent alumni. The names of these products’ designers are not yet as familiar as some of the others listed here, but they, like the thousands of graduates who passed through the RCA’s doors before them and the thousands more who will follow, continue to shape and enhance the way each and every one of us lives our lives.

The expansion of the College's Battersea site was marked by the opening of the Dyson Building in 2012, offering first-class, purpose-built studio spaces to Painting, Printmaking and Photography, as well as a home for InnovationRCA, the College's start-up business incubator. This was followed by the opening of the Woo Building, named in honour of Sir Po-Shing and Lady Helen Woo, in 2015. The College is currently embarking on the most significant development of our campus since the Darwin Building in 1961. Designed by renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron, a new, state-of-the-art building will sit alongside the RCA’s existing Dyson, Woo and Sackler Buildings and Clore Innovation Centre, on the south bank of the River Thames. The new building is designed as two separate but interconnected spaces that provide approximately 15,500sqm of distinct, flexible areas for teaching and research. Contact: P: +44 (0)20 7590 4444 E: info@rca.ac.uk Photo credit: Royal College of Art