Fitzwilliam College, Central Building Phase 1 Opening Ceremony

On Monday 13th May I attended the official opening of Phases 1 and 1A of the refurbishment to the central building at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

The team

This forms the first part of a five year staged renovation project to upgrade the function and fabric of the building, designed by Denys Lasdun in 1959, to provide more opportunities for student use, conferences and events. This went hand in hand with upgrading the services and environmental performance to reduce energy consumption and improve the internal conditions. We completed the feasibility study to suggest the packages of work in early 2013.

Enjoying a drink with the Bursar, Andrew Powell and engineers Adrian Mudge and Phil Hutchins

Phase 1 began on site in July 2013 and Phase 1A In the New Year 2014.

Phase 1 involved the building of a new extension to the north corner of the central building. This provides two new offices to the ground floor and a new servery to the first, linked by a new stair and service lift from the kitchen. This opens up the opportunity, (to be completed as part of a later phase), for a new circulation route around the Hall at first floor. This will unlock many of the major rooms on this level, some of which currently can only be accessed by passing through an adjacent room.

Phase 1A renovated the Old Library adjacent to the servery. This room had become available following the construction of the new Olisa Library in the College grounds, completed by Cullinan Studio in 2009.

The brief was to provide a sub-dividable suite of rooms that could be used for dining conferences, lectures, large meetings and events such as Wedding receptions for up to 160 people.

Because the room is over 30m long we sought to break its scale down by removing the relatively low original tile grid ceiling. We then created curved coffers aligned to the eight large windows, with lower sections of ceiling where down stand beams dictated the level. The lower sections house radiant ceiling panels, acoustic render and spot and track lighting to illuminate the College’s collection of paintings, mounted on the walls to great effect. The curved coffers are fitted with adjustable mood lighting for evening events.

We also upgraded the roof with insulation where there had been none and replaced the roof lights with new opening types. The existing sash windows were renovated to incorporate double glazing and air seals, which in combination with the roof lights provide a naturally ventilated approach to cooling the space.

The Master of the College, Nicola Padfield ceremonially “gunned in” the commemorative slate plaque to a rousing round of applause from the team; Fitzwilliam College, (Client), Cullinan Studio (Architect), SEH French (Main Contractor), Roger Parker Associates (M&E engineer) and Peter Dann ltd (Structural Engineer).