Phased refurbishment across a historic central London university.
King's College London, established in 1829 by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington, is England's third-oldest university. It ranks among the top UK universities globally and counts 14 Nobel Prize laureates among its alumni and faculty, offering world-class teaching and research in the heart of London.
The project was developed in stages across different areas of the building: a refurbishment of a new office area at Level 2 of the East Wing, a new Modern Language Centre on the ground floor, a new Student Union area comprising three separate areas across different floors, and the refurbishment of the Prayer Room at lower level. The comprehensive design encompassed all the removals and remedial works needed for spaces previously allocated to different uses.
Coordinated electrical and mechanical design through RIBA Stages 3 and 4.
Osborn Associates was engaged by Overbury to produce the MEP design across RIBA Stages 3 and 4. The appointment began with an in-depth site survey of the existing mechanical, electrical and plumbing services, drawing on specialist engineers to assess the condition and efficiency of the systems in place.
The electrical technical design covered small power, lighting, structured cabling, security and fire detection systems, coordinated carefully with the building's structural framework. The mechanical services design focused on heating, ventilation and air conditioning, integrated closely with the building's layout and its spatial and functional requirements. Throughout, the company participated in the design team meetings that kept the wider team aligned on service coordination, potential challenges and project objectives, and assisted the client with alternative engineering solutions where they added value.
Routing modern services through a listed, constantly occupied building.
Coordination and routing were made significantly more challenging by the listed status of the building. Listed fabric places real constraints on where services can run and how they can be fixed, so the design had to achieve the required distribution without compromising the features that give the building its protected status.
The building's constant occupation added a second constraint: with teaching, research and student life continuing throughout, service routing locations were restricted so as not to disrupt the ongoing use of the spaces. Resolving both of these constraints together, while still delivering a fully coordinated MEP design, called for close collaboration across the design team - sustained through a series of virtual design meetings that kept coordination tight and objectives aligned.
