36 Storey’s Way, Churchill College Architecture, Cambridge Higher Education Building Photos, English Property Images
36 Storey’s Way, Churchill College, Cambridge
24 May 2022
Location: Cambridge, southeast England, United Kingdom
Design: Cottrell & Vermeulen Architecture
Photos by Anthony Coleman
36 Storey’s Way, Churchill College
Jury Report
Returning to the original ‘pepperpots’ design the practice created for the college twenty years previously, this marks another opportunity for them to reflect on what worked well with that earlier project. The new scheme contributes to the intention to enlarge Churchill College‘s graduate quarter which already encompasses a useful diversity of different types of accommodation.
The resulting scheme showcases the practice’s experience with graduate housing with great virtuosity. A reciprocal balance is struck between the individual room, the sense of a domestic-scaled grouping around the shared kitchen / communal space and with the larger idea of a college graduate community. The three new buildings work individually – refining their reference to the Baillie Scott arts & crafts traditions of Storeys Way while extending that language into something that mediates with the refined modernism of Richard Sheppard’s college flats, as well as the wholly contemporary needs of the graduate community.
The use of materials is assured, with the tile hung elevations given a more generous canvas than the earlier ‘pepperpots’, the undulating surface folding organically over a precast concrete base. A convincing almost urban space is created between the new additions (two interlinked, one standing more independently) and the earlier project and the 1968 family accommodation designed by David Roberts. The landscaping of this shared ground was also impressive, even in early March, helping to root the buildings into the wider college.
Shared spaces are generous, characterful and well-considered, enjoying dynamic views across the college estate. Access staircases are covered external spaces, enclosed by slatted timber boarding, that unexpectedly take the visitor back out to the landscape before returning them inside once again. The shared kitchens – shared by clusters of five rooms (rather than the eight of the earlier scheme in response to feedback from the college community) each have a particular quality that one can imagine contributes to making them feel like home for their inhabitants, each one with a terrazzo window seat that looks across to another part of the graduate campus. The individual rooms are a real delight with en suite shower rooms.
Given the timeframe of the design and delivery of the project, the predicted energy performance betters business-as-usual benchmarks, with key operational features including heat pumps and photovoltaic application (the latter satisfying circa 20% of the load). In terms of whole life carbon considerations, there is significant use of timber at stair cores that are also treated as unheated spaces to limit heating loads, as well as engineered timber use in internal fit-out pod arrangements. The project also includes significant landscape contributions and some specific interventions that have contributed to the biodiversity enhancement of the wider site.
36 Storey’s Way, Churchill College – Building Information
Title: 36 Storey’s Way, Churchill College
RIBA region: East
Architect practice: Cottrell & Vermeulen Architecture
Date of completion: May 2019
Client company name: Churchill College
Project city/town: Cambridge
Contract value: Confidential
Gross internal area: 1,230.00 m²
Cost per m²: Confidential
Contractor company name: Barnes Construction
Consultants
Structural Engineers: engineers HRW
Environmental / M&E Engineers: OR Consulting
Quantity Surveyor / Cost Consultant: Robert Lombardelli Partnership
Awards
• RIBA Regional Award
Photographs: Anthony Coleman
36 Storey’s Way, Churchill College images / information received 240522 from the Royal Institute of British Architects
Location: Cambridge, south east England, UK
Cambridge Architecture
Cambridge Architecture Design – chronological list
Cambridge Architecture Walking Tours : city walks by e-architect
Cambridgeshire Architecture Designs – property selection below:
Education Campus in Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire
Architect: Atkins
image courtesy of architects
Education Campus in Alconbury Weald
Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, has been appointed to provide architecture and engineering services to Morgan Sindall Construction on a £36m new education campus in Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire.
Emmanuel College
Architect: Stanton Williams
image courtesy of architects
Emmanuel College Building in Cambridge
Planning approval for a new College Court at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Bringing new opportunities for communal life, Stanton Williams’ 7,800 sqm development marks the College’s most significant transformation in over 100 years.
Cambridge Building – Architecture Tour of the city on one page
Cambridge Architects – Alphabetical list of all featured designers
Comments / photos for the 36 Storey’s Way, Churchill College Cambridge Building design by Cottrell & Vermeulen Architecture, UK, page welcome
