Student Centre, University of Westminster

A tired and disorganised space transformed into a welcoming and useful student centre.

We worked with the University of Westminster to refurbish and reorganise the Student Centre at their New Cavendish Street Campus.

The existing facility suffered from a cluttered and disorganised appearance with outdated finishes and poor wayfinding which made it difficult for students to access the library.

The new space provides an inviting library and student centre reception area on a raised section of the ground floor plan.

A new stepped entrance, which is clearly visible and easily accessible from the building’s main entrance, gives the centre an elevated appearance and provides a visual link from the security reception through to the student centre.

This enhanced entrance, with its combination of glazing and full height partitions, displays new wayfinding graphics to direct people through the busy ground floor and also provides the space with improved acoustics.

The interior design concept for the scheme focused on ‘thresholds’ and drew inspiration from the yellow ‘mind the gap’ lines that create nonphysical boundaries along London’s busy tube stations.

By providing nonphysical boundaries through materiality and colour choices on the walls and floors, we were able to improve movement and circulation through the space. Areas are distinguished as ‘travel zones’ and ‘stopping zones’.

Slatted timbers were incorporated into the design to help inform the two zones. New furniture also helps to divide the space. Students now have areas to wait on soft seating, to sit at a bank of computer stations, or talk to staff at the main desk in the teal ‘stopping zone’.

The teal and feature yellow colour choices, which reference the ‘mind the gap’ lines and incorporate the University’s brand guidelines, highlight the space as a welcoming, shared and open resource to all students.