Central St Martins by Stanton Williams Architects

Central Saint Martins College for Art and Design has nurtured some of the most acclaimed British talent in design and the arts. The internationally renowned institution’s alumni includes James Dyson, fashion designers Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney and musicians M.I.A., Jarvis Cocker and PJ Harvey as well as a host of award winning artists and designers. Until this year, the college was spread over eleven buildings on six separate sites, but a new campus, designed by award winning architects Stanton Williams, will bring together the college’s 4,000 students under one roof for the first time. It is fitting that the new campus is an innovative mix of the old and the ultramodern, a space that is destined to inspire Britain’s best and brightest for years to come.

With ten acres of floor space, over 1.3 million timber blocks and enough concrete to fill eight Olympic pools, the new campus is the physical and creative centrepiece of the King’s Cross redevelopment in the heart of London. The development is in the process of transforming 67 acres of derelict land into a vibrant mixed-use quarter – which even has it’s own new postcode – in one of the largest urban regeneration projects seen in Europe so far. The university is one of the first spaces to open its doors in the development, and will be followed by offices, shops and residential apartments as well as student housing and lots of public space. The opening of the university taps into the development’s broader arts program. According to Anna Strongman of Kings Cross, “The local area already has a rich tradition of artistic creativity which we want to build on.” The combination is set to make the area a destination for the arts.

At the new campus’s southern end stands the heritage listed Granary building, a solid, six-storey building from the mid nineteenth century. The former warehouse building was the site where the grain from England’s countryside was unloaded from railway wagons and on to canal boats, to be transported to the capital’s bakeries. The unadorned, 50-metre wide brick elevation eloquently evokes the site’s industrial past, and in an elegant twist the buildings previous use shadows the design solutions Stanton Williams employed for the campus. The new campus is designed to maximise connections between departments within the college and the movement of students and materials around the building was envisaged three dimensionally in a way which the architects compare to the movement of grain using wagons and turntables – a ghostly echo from the site’s industrial past. For the architects, the architectural and industrial history of the site also provided a chance to, “Develop a robust contemporary architectural response to the boldness of the existing buildings on the site.” This opportunity resulted in a structure where the Victorian past and contemporary design come together to serve the students and staff of the college.

According to architect Paul Williams, “Our design draws inspiration from the ambition and scale of its Victorian architectural setting and introduces a strong contemporary intervention that celebrates the juxtaposition of old and new in its detailing. The idea of 4000 students inhabiting this once redundant and isolated building is breathtaking.”

The restored Granary Building houses the campus’s library and reception area, and also faces what will be a large new public square. On either side of the Granary Building are parallel transit sheds. The eastern transit shed will house the college’s new workshops while new bars and shops will provide a area for students to socialise and relax, bringing a vibrant and lively atmosphere to the site.

Between the transit sheds are two substantial new four-storey studio buildings, which respond to the scale of the Granary Building, continuing its massing along the length of the site. For the architects the contemporary materials of these new buildings, as well as their scale, mean that the new campus, “Will stand, beacon-like, as a symbol of the college’s presence within this rapidly evolving part of London.”

Running between the studio buildings is an internal ‘street’, covered in translucent ETFE. At 12 meters wide and 20 metres high, and leading to a new fully equipped theatre at the northern end, the street offers an open space which will be an arena for student life, where exhibitions, fashion shows and performances will take place. The street will also provide a space for meeting people, chatting and relaxing, and will have viewing spaces so students can see each other work and perform. This interaction is a valuable part of the new campus, where the various disciplines can communicate and inspire each other in the one place for the first time in the College’s history, creating the potential for a multitude of new ideas and serendipitous moments, of shared learning and knowledge. According to Paul Williams, “Our consistent aim has been to create a stage for transformation, a framework of spaces that can be orchestrated and transformed over time by staff and students where interactions and interventions, chance and experimentation can create that slip stream between disciplines. The coming together of all the schools of Central Saint Martins will open up that potential.” This potential is illustrated by the range of facilities that will be housed in the campus, including studios for fashion, textiles, architecture, photography, graphic and communication design and art, as well as casting, wood fabrication and metal fabrication workshops, performance design and production labs and jewellery workshops.

From the boom of the era of Victorian industrialism to the site’s new reincarnation as a centre for the arts, the spirit of the site’s history is kept alive in architectural choices and interventions that use the past as both a guide and an inspiration, this awareness of the past is beautifully articulated in the juxtaposition of the brick and wood of the area’s industrial heyday with the glass and steel of the 21st century. The campus is a sign of things to come in the Kings Cross redevelopment, but more importantly it is perfectly adapted (and adaptable) to the needs of the students and staff of the college who represent the future of British art and design. +

PHOTOGRAPHY © Hufton+Crow

1. Central Saint Martins College for Art and Design

2. OLD AND NEW The new campus is a space where worn Victorian brick and contemporary concrete, steel and glass come together to create a unique and inspiring setting.

3. STUDIOS AND WORKSHOPS The architects have ensured that students can work with the luxury of natural light.

4. Exposed timber beams add a sense of the rustic to the otherwise gleaming interior, highlighting the juncture between the old and the new which makes the new campus such an exciting and inspiring space.

5. INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH The scale of the building means it can be adapted to meet student’s needs. Temporary spaces built for fashion shows, performances and exhibitions are able to fit easily within the buildings industrial proportions.