Anyone wishing to see art imitating life need go no further than King’s Cross Square by Central St Martins School of Art, where architect Ian McChesney was commissioned to design eight benches for the new ‘public’ space on the Argent development. The architect was inspired by the natural erosion he saw while walking the Cornish coast, and specified Cornubian coarse biotite granite. So the 4t, 8m long benches have the edges smoothed away like a million-year pebble to create an extended lozenge form. While very hard, it makes it ‘an inviting material on which to sit and relax’ says McChesney; although the idea of students simply sitting and relaxing anywhere ended with the death of the maintenance grant and free tuition.