PROJECT REPORT: EDUCATION & RESEARCH FACILITIES
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between the 19th century building and the new extension is a similar colour palette, mixing muted and richer colours, and considered use of materials. The 50 per cent GGBS in the building’s exposed concrete frame gives it a pleasant creamy hue. As part of the effort to create a “family of buildings,” in Henderson’s words, the new extension’s facade takes some of the rhythm of the former hospital, echoing its stone columns using precast elements. It is faced in Petersen bricks of a straw colour that fits the Cambridge vernacular, and “locks the building into its context” – lime mortar and English garden wall bond at lower levels further emulating similar structures nearby. When it came to how to address the Outram building, Henderson admits: “It is very flamboyant and we felt it was inappropriate to try and compete with that,” leading to a focus on the hospital building as the key inspiration for form and materials. “Just as Outram was reinterpreting and extending it, we saw our design as referring to the former Addenbrooke’s hospital building as the primary building on the site.” He says the new extension works “as a foil and a complement to the Outram building.” The new addition is roughly three quarters of the length of the 19th century building, running in parallel at the other edge of the site and connected at ground and first floors. These levels have been designed to have a strong continuity with both existing buildings, bringing a unity to the composition while also exploring the contrasts between the forms. The ground floor houses the rooflit reception area, plus teaching rooms including two lecture theatres, as well as study and the ‘milling’ space. This is
ADF AUGUST 2018
central to the project’s character – informal breakout space such as tables and chairs in wide corridors, where students can meet up with their peers and tutors, and discuss their subject in an impromptu way. Henderson explains these are “very social foyer type spaces. People break out, continue their conversations, it’s a place of informal teaching and discussion and group learning.” The reception foyer itself is one important setting for this, nearly 5 metres high thanks to borrowing the proportions of its 19th century neighbour, rooflights connecting to its characterful brick walls and buttresses that form one side of the space.
Rooflights have also been used to make the junction with the back of the Outram building, allowing users to still “experience the integrity and facades” of both buildings. The new extension has marble flooring on the ground floor like the former hospital, helping to provide textural and visual continuity for users. In terms of interiors, although the nature of the courses and the students suggested that business environments might be the key design inspiration, Henderson says that they wanted to avoid either a “corporate interior or Google-type office”, but rather create something “that had a real sense of permanence to it.” Stanton Williams’ signature use of concrete features strongly, including an abundance of flat soffits, and clean lines – the juxtaposition of marble and concrete echoing its recent work at Musée d’Arts de Nantes. “It’s a striking contrast between a quite refined material and a robust engineering material. We like the strong tactile character concrete gives.” He adds that the building has a deceptive simplicity:
We wanted it to feel inclusive and democratic while catering for students who are on very different programmes
Gavin Henderson, Stanton Williams
PROJECT FACTFILE: SIMON SAINSBURY CENTRE
Client: The University of Cambridge Architect: Stanton Williams Main contractor: SDC Builders Civil engineer/structural engineer: AKT II
Building services engineer: Arup Quantity surveyor: Gardiner & Theobald
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