King’s College London
Bush House is Grade II listed building situated between Aldwych and Strand in central London.
Bush House comprises four buildings originally opened over a period of 10 years with the centre block opening in 1925, (North-West wing 1928, North-East wing 1929, South-East wing 1930 and South-West wing 1935).
The building was designed by American architect Harvey Wiley Corbett and was regarded at the time as the worlds most expensive building. During the 1940s the BBC European services moved into the South-East wing of Bush House and until 2012 Bush House was known as the home to BBC World Service.
In September 2015 King's College, London leased Bush House (North, South, North East, and South East wings) and in 2018 the site opened as a fully operational university campus.
Working in close collaboration with Atelier Works, we developed a holistic wayfinding scheme the new King’s College London Bush House campus.
The Bush House brief was to create a wayfinding system that was not only updatable but also fit within the Grade II* surroundings and require no permanent fixing details.
The wayfinding scheme was rolled out at various points in the year. The North and South wings went live before the completion of the North East and South East wings.
We developed a scheme that utilises the buildings original characteristics, buildings names based on its position within a compass.
The campus featured large freestanding totems, that was carefully positioned within the large lift and stair lobbies. The freestanding totems were designed in a way that required no permanent fixings and can freely slot together, similar to the Ray Eames ‘House of Cards’ design.
Throughout the project, at each stage through design development, each of the proposed designs within the sign family was extensively prototyped and trialled on-site for a period of 3 - 6 months. All stages, site meetings and factory visits were carefully recorded and documented. The documentation was shared with the client and stakeholders to ensure each stage was presented and approved.
Overall, the wayfinding scheme covered four buildings with 55,059m2 floor space and a hardware budget of £265,504 + VAT. A breakdown cost of £11,431.00 per floor or £6.00 per m2.
The scheme encompassed internal and external signage. As part of our project management requirements, we generated and submitted a Planning Approval and Listed Building consent document to the local authority and was successful in its approval.
Graphic Design — © Atelier Works
Architects — © LTS Architects / © JRA
Works under the direction at — © Whybrow Pedrola
