LSE CAMPUS Saw Swee Hock Student Centre wows students and critics The Saw Swee Hock Student Centre (SAW), LSE’s latest landmark building, opened its doors this January to great acclaim from both the LSE and architecture communities.
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he first new building LSE has commissioned in over 40 years, SAW is now home to the Students’ Union, LSE Careers, Residential Services and the Accommodation Office. Housing a gym, night club, media centre, faith centre, bar and cafés, SAW has already become a focal point for students looking to study, socialise, work out or simply enjoy some down time.
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Designed by Irish architects O’Donnell + Tuomey, the building’s dramatic sculptural form and unusual perforated brick façade has been steadily garnering praise since opening, with architecture critics citing it “richly considered and finished” (Hugh Pearman, RIBA Journal), a “fantastically individual” building (Ellis Woodman, Building Design) and a “mountainous fun palace” (Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian).
Kester Rattenbury of The Architectural Review, who visited SAW earlier this year, has called the building “the most astonishingly well and truly occupied new building I’ve ever seen… Old, easy to walk past, weird, beautifully made, unusual, intriguing, comfortably human, tangibly loved [and] pleasurably used.” Students agree, with second year Law student Izzy Janssen saying: “it’s a place where people can