A Home for Global Minds
Robeson House is a landmark, purpose-built student accommodation development for the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Located in South London, adjacent to Burgess Park, the £100 million, 16-storey scheme delivers 676 high-quality cluster flats and studio bedrooms, supported by a generous range of shared amenities across the lower ground, ground and first floors.
Designed to meet the needs of a predominantly postgraduate student community, Robeson House offers environments that reflect the study patterns and wellbeing priorities associated with advanced degree programmes. Multiple layers of amenity are integrated beneath extensive student living accommodation, creating a carefully balanced range of settings that supports focused study, social interaction, and everyday living within a robust and secure operational framework.
Sector | PBSA
Apartments | 676
Completion | 2025
Client | London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Jasper Sanders + Partners led the interior specification for the bedrooms and shared kitchen-lounge spaces on the upper floors, alongside the development of the building’s brand strategy. This included the creation of a cohesive graphic identity and a comprehensive wayfinding system, ensuring a clear, welcoming, and consistent experience throughout the building.
The building is named in honour of American LSE alumna Eslanda Robeson – an anthropologist, civil rights activist and globally influential 20th-century intellectual. Her work across anthropology, internationalism, feminism and anti-colonial thought provided a rich foundation for the building’s identity.
Research into Robeson’s life inspired a series of large-scale murals along The Street and within first-floor amenity spaces. Using a contemporary visual language drawn from the layered patterns and geometry of London Underground upholstery, the artworks blend portraiture with abstraction to narrate key moments from her life. The compositions add depth and movement, anchoring the building in LSE’s intellectual heritage while giving residents a meaningful sense of place and embedding cultural narrative into everyday experience. The studio was appointed to reconfigure the lower ground, ground and first-floor amenity levels, ensuring the spaces responded effectively to operational demands and resident needs.
“The originally consented layouts were largely notional, and did not adequately address the realities of managing a building of this scale or the expectations of its resident demographic. The reconfiguration focused on establishing clear zoning, intuitive circulation and legible destinations, aligning arrival, security, management, welfare, and social spaces into a coherent sequence that functions operationally while also delivering a welcoming and calm resident experience.”
The ground floor adopts a clear, purposeful design language that reflects LSE’s academic rigour and progressive values, while remaining rooted in its South London context. References to local terracotta brick architecture and the graphic clarity of the London Underground inform a palette of tiled surfaces, strong linear compositions, and gridded forms. Subtle red undertones drawn from LSE’s branding are integrated throughout circulation and shared spaces, reinforcing identity and legibility without overwhelming the architecture.
Colour and materiality are used strategically to support function and orientation. Cooler blue tones define the fitness suite, lighter greens create a fresh, sociable atmosphere in the private courtyard dining, and a deeper palette distinguishes the cinema as a more immersive environment. Along The Street, these moments of colour punctuate a restrained architectural backdrop, guiding intuitive use of space. The same tonal strategy continues to the first floor, where teal and vibrant yellow predominate in the study mezzanine, reinforcing function and creating a seamless transition between spaces.
One of the scheme’s key features is The Street, conceived as a single, cohesive destination rather than a series of disconnected rooms. Seating and tables are arranged along its length to overlook pocket courtyards and amenity spaces, including the fitness suite, cinema, private dining, and laundry. Extensive glazing draws daylight deep into the plan, framing landscaped views and reinforcing the connection between inside and out. The environment balances movement with moments of pause, encouraging chance encounters while maintaining clarity and ease of navigation within a busy, active space.
