PROJECT: St John's College Library

LOCATION: Cambridge

DATE: 1990 - 1993

In 1990, we won a competition to build a new library for the College which had a magnificent collection of old books and manuscripts housed in a chapel-like room built in 1624, but its modern collection had long outgrown its cramped conditions.

Our design kept the old collection intact by retaining the shell of the existing 1885 Penrose building, and transforming it with a new extension at right angles to create a technologically modern, naturally ventilated library with 120 reading spaces. The resulting cruciform building also makes a new entrance to the library facing the mighty tower of Gilbert Scott's chapel across Chapel Court.

The building was completed on time to a tight timetable within the confines of a busy working college.