Door Industry Journal - Winter 2020

Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk 28 THE door industry journal winter 2020 Industry News Secured by Design Ensures Student and Staff Security at Kingston University Secured by Design explains how proven police crime prevention measures have been incorporated at Kingston University’s landmark Town House to ensure it is safe and secure for students, residents, and businesses. To design a university building that keeps students and staff safe while encouraging members of the public to share its library, cafes and meeting rooms is a significant challenge. But that is what has been achieved with the Kingston University’s Town House – a gateway building with shared facilities for students and the local community. Through its revolving front door is a spacious foyer, a covered auditorium, and an 80-seat theatre. Above the three dance studios on the first floor is a library that extends to the fourth floor. There are cafes on the ground and fifth floors and a number of group rooms on the second and third floors. The public availability to all floors has meant that the security and access requirements of every door and the position of more than 100 CCTV cameras were considered to allow for use during the day and into the evening. Clear sightlines were important too, especially around the circular front welcome desk and on the library floors where shelving units have been restricted to four tiers to maximise surveillance. External safety and security considerations have included access to stairwells and swipe card cycle storage. All the security measures are linked to a 24/7 security control room. Metropolitan Police Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs), who incorporate crime prevention measures and techniques into a building’s physical security and layout and landscaping, had their first Town House security meeting in January 2015 – eight months before planning permission was granted and two years before building commenced. Advance planning was vital, especially as electrical services were cast into the concrete skeleton of the building. Over the next four years, they worked with security consultants, the university’s security and faculty teams, Grafton Architects, and contractor Willmott Dixon to achieve standards set by Secured by Design, the official police security initiative. This involves security products not only being rigorously tested but also fully certificated by an independent, third-party certification body accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). Most of the security products in the Town House were supplied by SBD member companies. Pat Simcox, a Designing Out Crime Officer with the Metropolitan Police, explained that there were ‘security walk-throughs’ to evaluate the access requirements of every door and the position of every CCTV camera. “The security was under review constantly and there was a readiness to address