The £30m project designed by Hawkins\Brown will double the amount of teaching and research space available while retaining the building’s existing structure.

Subject to planning approval from the London Borough of Camden, the project is expected to start on site before the end of the year.

The building will be stripped back to its core and extensively reconfigured.

The project is part of UCL’s wider programme to modernise its Bloomsbury Campus and is seen as an important opportunity to demonstrate how the retrofit of the 1970’s building stock is possible, producing world-class architecture while retaining the embodied energy.

Professor Alan Penn, dean of The Bartlett, UCL’s Faculty of the Built Environment, said: “A real challenge facing society is how best to improve the quality of buildings constructed just a few decades ago.

“We decided to retrofit Wates House rather than to demolish and rebuild. Retaining the existing structure not only saves embodied energy, but adds a certain quirkiness to the design.”

For the two academic years starting September 2014 The Bartlett School of Architecture will relocate to a temporary home on Hampstead Road, also designed by Hawkins\Brown.

Andrew Grainger, director of UCL Estates, said: “Wates House is a critical project, part of the estate transformation works set to start this summer to improve UCL’s buildings and make better use of the space that we have.

“We decided to retrofit Wates House rather than to demolish and rebuild. Retaining the existing structure not only saves embodied energy, but adds a certain quirkiness to the design.