Shared values: Office S&M creates Kings Cross nursery fit-out
At the opposite end of Argents Kings Cross development from the prone bulk of BIG and Heatherwick Studios mammoth (and nearly complete) Google HQ, sits another, smaller, quieter engineered-timber building, similarly horizontal, vertically finned and sited parallel to rail tracks. But, rather than accommodating any kidult spaces for tech-bros, this Haptic-designed building is host to the more age-appropriate play spaces of the new York Way nursery school, with an interior designed by Office S&M Architects.The W3 building, as its known, was only completed in January 2024 and is one of the final pieces in the jigsaw of the Allies and Morrison/Porphyrios masterplan, which has been developing incrementally over the past two decades. It sits at its north-east corner, where a sliver of the development site strays into Islington from Camden.Author King's Cross by David Morley Architects, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Haptic (photo: Hufton + Crow)Won in competition by Haptic in 2017, the three-storey building is one of a cluster of blocks set around a landscaped courtyard designed by Fabrik with an adjoining ecological garden by Jan Kattein Architects. The other blocks are residential, one designed by David Morley Architects and two by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, ranging in height from eight to 16 storeys. To help provide some communal focus to this more residential-led area of the masterplan, W3 was designated at an early stage as a mixed-use community building, accommodating a crche/nursery school and caf/gym.AdvertisementHaptic has delivered an admirably low-carbon building, with a mass-engineered timber frame and timber faades which have been pre-weathered with a soft, if slightly dead, slivery grey finish. Reflecting its community focus, concrete seating was built into the base of the faade facing the square, while a key organising feature of its design is a central open loggia/terrace at first floor level. This provides a protected play space for the crche/nursery school as well as a convenient breakpoint between differing uses, with two cores serving either end of the building.While the half of the building planned as a caf/gym has since become retail and general workspace, owing in part to the adjacency of a caf in a neighbouring building, the nursery school element has remained. Surprisingly, its the only space specifically planned as a nursery on the Argent masterplan, despite the plethora of new housing and workspace thats been developed there.Haptic's W3 building (photo: Hufton + Crow)There is a dearth of nursery places across London and, indeed, across the UK as a whole, despite the rare increase in central government funding that the childcare sector has experienced. Originally announced in the 2023 Tory budget, this phased policy, which has continued under Labour, channels support via local authorities and will eventually cover up to 80 per cent of childcare costs.At present, eligible families are able to access 15 hours of free early education and childcare a week for children aged nine months to two years, which is due to rise by September 2025 to 30 hours a week for children aged up to three years. Earlier this year the Department for Education estimated that 85,000 more nursery places will be required across the country to meet this target, plus 40,000 extra staff in a sector notoriously beset by lack of training and poor pay. In the case of the York Way nursery school, the operator selected to run it, MEplace, is a model for the professional type of new provider no doubt anticipated to take advantage of this increase in funding and to help meet demand. Founded in 2020 by Vlada Bell, who had been frustrated with the lack and quality of childcare options available for her own child, it already has two nurseries in Hackney Wick and promotes itself as providing holistic childcare for the modern world, ranging from play to paediatric neuroscience.AdvertisementIt delivers this through a Golden Thread curriculum structured around six core pillars: mind, body, people, fun, world, life each a cue for the childrens activities and the behaviours they are taught. Accompanying this, a set of graphics has been developed to help structure and create an inviting and stimulating learning environment for the kids, a sign of design-savviness on the clients part that saw them commission Office S&M for the fit-out of this their third nursery. A key part of the nurserys ethos are the entwined ideas of wellness and sustainability from the plant-based food the children eat to the notions of stewardship that permeate the teaching.It also stretches to the spaces of the learning environment. Bell was clearly appreciative of the qualities offered by the Haptic building itself, mentioning how she likes the exposed timber. Of the commissioning of Office S&M she says: We really felt that they shared our values, especially around sustainability.After being appointed last December, the design and fit-out was completed in August and the nursery opened in September. It is the first nursery the practice has designed and Hugh McEwen, one of Office S&Ms two directors, says: The process was a good combination of our design experience and the knowledge of suppliers we brought to the table, alongside MEplaces experience from their previous nurseries regarding what had worked successfully, durability and so on.The school occupies half the buildings floorplate and accommodates 100 children across four different age groups: 1-2; 2-3 and 3-5 respectively called Caterpillars, Dinos and Butterflies and each with distinguishing graphics and colour plus a 6+ after-school. The nursery occupies the north side of the ground floor where its admin offices and the after-school provision are located, and then spreads across the whole first floor. Butterflies are located to the north and Caterpillars and Dinos to the south, on either side of the central loggia-cum-terrace, which enables a secure semi-external breakout and activity space, safety being a key concern for the nursery. The layout has a clear functionality to it. The areas assigned to each age group consist of large, open plan learning spaces running along the amply glazed western side of the building (in the case of Dinos this occupies the whole southern end of the first floor). We wanted to deliver as much natural light and ventilation to the learning spaces as possible, says McEwen. All the WCs and nappy-changing facilities sit directly in or off these spaces. Serving as a threshold to this is a quiet drop-off space, essentially a wide corridor lined with kids lockers assigned with their names. This acts as a decompression chamber to calm children arriving and creates a secure threshold from the shared public circulation space beyond. The corridors are in turn lined by service rooms grouped along their eastern side stores, staff toilets and plant.In the learning spaces, the mini-me fit-out and furniture inevitably pulls a little at the heart strings: tiny tables, chairs and sets of shelves in soft but zingy colours, making the 3.7m ceiling height and exposed CLT piers appear Brobdingnagian in scale.But its the structure and order that is most noticeable. Office S&M has deftly utilised the clear structural logic of the architecture to link with the pedagogic structure of the teaching. CLT columns are articulated against cool wall colours and define an enfilade of bays, between which are located hubs for six to eight children, each adjacent to a window. These are kitted-out with a suite of furniture: table, chairs, set of shelves and white board: defining smaller areas for children to focus around.With a lot vying for their attention: the idea was to make everything in the spaces as uniform and quiet enough to be readable, says McEwen. The fit-out included all the internal finishing to the whole external skin, he adds. All the wall and MDF window board linings are finished with low-VOC paint. A different, more wipeable paint finish is used along the walls lower sections where there will be more wear and tear. The vinyl flooring sits on a recycled raised floor system.Heating and ventilation are supplied from a site-wide system. Office S&Ms careful orchestration of elements extends to how services are delivered to the spaces, particularly those exposed against the CLT ceiling soffit.The servicing strategy was set by the landlord, so it was a question of making pipes and everything as neat as possible essentially minimising stuff on the ceiling, says McEwen. It all sits at a datum of 2.8m, bringing the horizon line and scale of the spaces down for the children.Indeed, considerations of a childs scale informs the whole design, with lux levels adjusted for working at childrens table height level, cork corner protectors wrapping around the bottom of walls and the dainty sets of all-timber furniture (supplied by product manufacturer Community Playthings), which elicit a slight double-take as they incrementally increase in scale across age groups.As a practice, Office S&M is known for its strong use of colour. Colour can be used as a functional part of architecture, says McEwan. And here the practice skilfully brings this sensibility to bear upon MEplaces own colour-coding across age groups and branding. The latter is seen in the dark red of the Hoppe ironmongery. We were influenced, too, by the Montessori teaching that environments are learning tools, says McEwan.With its balance of calmness, texture and colour, this is a carefully calibrated, joyful and relatively cheap fit-out. Moreover it is a repeatable and adaptable kit-of-parts, and Office S&M is already working on a further nursery for MEplace, a retrofit of an older building in nearby Angel.MEplace Kings Cross could be seen as a timely and instructive model of how to fit out a building with a nursery, given Labours recently announced plans to deliver some of the 85,000 nursery places through new or expanded school-based nurseries. Primary schools will be able to apply for up to 150,000 from a capital pot of 15 million, creating a first tranche of 300.Its a Labour framework fitting in with a Conservative policy, says McEwen, who is somewhat critical of the plans, pointing out that one of the learnings from the York Way project is that the toilets need to be sited within teaching spaces. Schools cant always be easily adapted for that, he observes.At York Way, meanwhile, places are filling up fast: Weve had four video tours requested from around the world, including one from India and one from California, says Bell. Whether thats down to Google, I dont know. If so, it wont be long before kids are being dropped off here by parents heading to their own play spaces up the road.Project dataStart on siteMay 2024CompletionAugust 2024Gross internal floor area555 m2Construction cost 750,000 (including MEP fit-out from shell and core)Construction cost per m21,350ArchitectOffice S&M ArchitectsClientMEplaceM&E consultant Kench ConsultantsPrincipal designer building regulations Office S&M ArchitectsPrincipal designer CDMCDRM ServicesApproved building inspectorWilkinson Construction ConsultantsMain contractor BB ContractsCAD software usedRevitFire engineerMu StudioGraphic designMEplaceSustainability dataOn-site energy generation6.57%Heating and hot water load41.42 kWh/m2/yr (base build only)Total energy load 80.17 kWh/m2/yr (base build only)Carbon emissions (all) 22.30 kgCO2/m2 (base build only)Annual mains water consumption 3.8 m3/occupantAirtightness at 50Pa 3 m3/hr/m2Overall area-weighted U-value0.40 W/m2KEmbodied carbon (estimated) 98 kgCO2eq/m2 (fit-out only)
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