Leading art school, Central Saint Martins College of Arts & Design, started the academic year in its new £200 million facility close to King’s Cross station after the 400,000 sq ft (40,000 sq m) building was fitted out by Overbury to designs by architect Pringle Brandon. Central Saint Martins is one of six constituent colleges of University of the Arts London.

The 22 week long fit out project has transformed the Granary Complex, which was originally built as part of a group of Victorian buildings in the Eastern Goods Yard area of King’s Cross, part of the 67-acre, 8 million sq ft King’s Cross Central development.

Pringle Brandon was appointed by fit out and refurbishment specialist Overbury to create designs for the college to include a theatre, education studios, teaching spaces, performance studios, a library, production workshops as well as a refectory, café and administration office.

The college facilities are arranged around a four-storey internal street that runs along the entire north-south central axis of the building and provides a high degree of natural lighting as well as functioning as circulation space, work space and an exhibition area.

“Flexibility has been one of the watchwords throughout the design process,” said Pringle Brandon associate Simon Bone. “Not only have all areas had to be created with evening usage in mind but areas such as the lecture theatres and performance spaces had to be designed to include the possibility of public and corporate events, and in the case of the shop and adjacent museum, constant public access.”

Areas such as the refectory, which doubles as a performance space, theatre foyer and studios have been designed for flexibility of use while display spaces needed to be able to accommodate the differing nature of future exhibits. The fit-out was also designed to complement the aesthetics of the original Victorian industrial architecture, juxtaposed with modern additions by architect Stanton Williams.

“Designing space for designers is always a challenging prospect, and when the end users are art and design students, their needs are more varied than a typical education building can cope with.  We worked closely with the client to ensure the best end result,” said Bone.

In addition to the architectural design of the fit out, Pringle Brandon provided workplace consultancy services and space planning advice, as well as collaborating with the University on signage and way-finding features and bespoke joinery design.