JESUS COLLEGE COMPETITION WIN
OCTOBER 2014
The practice is delighted to have won the competition for a new development within Jesus College, Cambridge. The practice secured the appointment from among a strong short-list that that included Wright & Wright, Haworth Tompkins and Cullinan Studio.
The project forms the first part of a three-phase development, to create a new outward-facing research centre for the College that includes a communications facility and 150-seater auditorium. The scheme involves the reordering and renovation of the site’s existing buildings and incorporates the western half of the historic Wesley House.
Work is due to start on site early next year.
A+U FEATURE ON SOMERVILLE COLLEGE ACCOMMODATION
MAY 2014
The Japanese journal a+u has published an account of the practice’s student accommodation for Somerville College, Oxford. The theme of this month’s publication is ‘New Landscapes of Wooden Architecture’ and features an international selection of projects that explore new aspects of wood technology and its potential within cities. The article gives a description on the themes and processes behind the project, placing it within the context of the historic university city and the surrounding Radcliffe Infirmary Quarter.
It is illustrated with working details of the bespoke timber glazing for the stair tower lanterns, as well as the prefabricated timber projecting bay window units for the student bedrooms, with their integral desk and bench seat overlooking the street.
‘We chose to make the glazed elements in the stair towers and student rooms in wood because we wanted them to be like warm lanterns, internally lit in the evening, bringing light to the narrow street…Wood allowed us to make more three-dimensional details…we owe a debt to Louis Kahn’s work at Philip Exeter Academy Library.’ NM