The New Library, Magdalene College winner of RIBA Stirling Prize 2022
15/10/2022.
[Cambridge] UK
metalocus, ADELA BONAS
metalocus, ADELA BONAS
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) this week named The New Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge, by Níall McLaughlin Architects, as the winner of the 26th RIBA Stirling Prize.
The new building set within the college grounds at the 700-year-old Cambridge’s city centre provides students with a new library – open 24 hours a day – incorporating an archive and an art gallery.
The new library improves the cramped study spaces of the adjacent Grade I listed 17th century Pepys Library and extends the quadrangular arrangement of buildings and courts that have gradually developed from the site of the monastic college.
The new building set within the college grounds at the 700-year-old Cambridge’s city centre provides students with a new library – open 24 hours a day – incorporating an archive and an art gallery.
The new library improves the cramped study spaces of the adjacent Grade I listed 17th century Pepys Library and extends the quadrangular arrangement of buildings and courts that have gradually developed from the site of the monastic college.
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane
Site plan. Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects.
Ground floor plan. Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects.
First floor plan. Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects.
Second floor plan. Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects.
Ceiling plan. Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects.
Section. Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects.
Section. Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects.
Details. Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects.
El design, by London-based studio Níall McLaughlin Architects, is formed by simple brick volumes as a reinterpretation of the architecture of the oldest university buildings of Magdalene College. The project seeks its materiality by combining load-bearing bricks, wood and shape as derived from the context, interwoven volumes and chimneys, and windows with tracery and gabled pitched roofs, with contemporary sustainable design elements to create a building that will stand the test of time.
It contrasts openness with intimacy; and visitors are met with an elegant brickwork façade and enticing large wooden doors, which open into a tiered, timber interior, bathed in light. A triple-height entrance hall leads into a central double-height reading room.
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane.
The grid structure generates an attractive array of spaces: wide zones for reading rooms and group study, and narrow zones for staircases and bookcases.
A regular grid of brick chimneys supports the timber floors and bookshelves and carries warm air up to ventilate the building. Between each set of four chimneys, there is a large, vaulted lantern skylight. A connecting passageway above, along the building's eastern end, provides views across the college and gardens and towards the river.
This is a modern building that employs simple but highly effective passive ventilation and natural lighting strategies to minimise energy in use, and materials such as engineered timber structure to reduce carbon embodied in its construction.
It contrasts openness with intimacy; and visitors are met with an elegant brickwork façade and enticing large wooden doors, which open into a tiered, timber interior, bathed in light. A triple-height entrance hall leads into a central double-height reading room.
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane.
The grid structure generates an attractive array of spaces: wide zones for reading rooms and group study, and narrow zones for staircases and bookcases.
A regular grid of brick chimneys supports the timber floors and bookshelves and carries warm air up to ventilate the building. Between each set of four chimneys, there is a large, vaulted lantern skylight. A connecting passageway above, along the building's eastern end, provides views across the college and gardens and towards the river.
This is a modern building that employs simple but highly effective passive ventilation and natural lighting strategies to minimise energy in use, and materials such as engineered timber structure to reduce carbon embodied in its construction.
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane.
Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects. Photograph by Nick Kane.
Project description by Níall McLaughlin Architects
We were appointed to design Magdalene College’s New College Library through a competition held in 2014. The new building replaces cramped and poorly equipped facilities in the adjacent Grade 1 Listed Pepys Building with a larger library, incorporating an archive facility and a picture gallery.
The new building is sited in a highly sensitive historic setting, along the boundary wall between the enclosed space of the Master’s Garden and the more open space of the Fellows’ Garden. Its placement extends the quadrangular arrangement of buildings and courts that developed from the monastic origins of the college site.
The library is approached from Second Court, through a little doorway, and out under an old Yew tree. From this shady corner, you sense the presence of the river opening out at the edge of the lawn. We wanted to make the building a journey that gradually rose up towards the light. On the way up there would be rooms, galleries, and places to perch with a book. At the top, there would be views out over the lawn towards the water. We wanted to create a variety of ways for someone to situate themselves depending on inclination. You might sit in a grand hall, a small room, or tuck yourself into a tiny private niche.
For us, good architecture plays a variety of experiences against underlying order so as to produce harmony. The new library is based upon a logical latticework of interrelated elements. A regular grid of brick chimneys supports the floors and book stacks and carries warm air up to ventilate the building. Between each set of four chimneys, there is a roof lantern bringing light down into the spaces below: air rising and light falling.
This regular array produces a natural hierarchy with narrow zones for circulation and wide zones for reading rooms. The delineation of load-bearing brick vertical structure, supporting spanning engineered timber horizontal structure is used to reinforce the organizational scheme. This creates an underlying pattern of warp and weft that we hope can be understood intuitively by people using the building.
The materiality and form of the new library are derived both from its context and from the College’s brief to make a highly durable and sustainable building. The older college buildings are of load-bearing brick, with timber floors and gabled pitched roof structures. Brick chimneys animate the skyline and stone tracery picks out the fenestration. We tried to make the new building from this set of architectural elements. We used timber instead of stone for our window tracery, which will weather over time to become a silvery grey like the stone.
We worked carefully with our builders to find a variety of bricks that would match the tapestry-like quality of the older College buildings. At the same time, this is a modern building that employs innovative passive ventilation strategies to minimize energy in use and engineered timber structure to reduce carbon embodied in its construction.
More information
Architects
Niall McLaughlin Architects. Project Architect.- Claire McMenamin. Project Associate.- Tim Allen-Booth.
Collaborators
Structural Engineer.- Smith and Wallwork.
Project Manager.- Savills.
Quantity Surveyor.- Gleeds.
Acoustics Consultant.- Max Fordham.
M&E Consultant.- Max Fordham.
Fire Engineer.- MLM.
Building Control.- MLM.
Project Manager.- Savills.
Quantity Surveyor.- Gleeds.
Acoustics Consultant.- Max Fordham.
M&E Consultant.- Max Fordham.
Fire Engineer.- MLM.
Building Control.- MLM.
Contractor
Main Contractor.- Cocksedge.
Wood Supplier Internal Oak Joinery.- James Latham.
Internal Joinery.- Wedd Joinery Limited.
Wood Supplier Internal Oak Joinery.- James Latham.
Internal Joinery.- Wedd Joinery Limited.
Area
Gross internal area.- 1,525.00 m².
Net internal area.- 1,223.00 m².
Net internal area.- 1,223.00 m².
Dates
Date of completion and occupation.- 01 2021.
Location
Magdalene College Cambridge, UK, CB3 0AG.
Manufacturers
Eurban, Junckers, Neue Holzbau AG, Schüco, Reynaers, VMZINC.
Photography
Niall McLaughlin
Niall McLaughlin was born in Geneva in 1962. He was educated in Dublin and received his architectural qualifications from University College Dublin in 1984. He worked for Scott Tallon Walker in Dublin and London between 1984 and 1989. He established his own practice, Níall McLaughlin Architects, in London in 1990, with a view to designing high quality modern buildings with a special emphasis on materials and detail. Níall won Young British Architect of the Year in 1998, was one of the BBC Rising Stars in 2001, and his work represented Britain in a US exhibition Gritty Brits at the Carnegie Mellon Museum.
Niallʼs designs have won many awards in the UK, Ireland and the US; including an RIAI award for Best Building in the Landscape and the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Award, and have featured on the RIBA Stirling Shortlist 2013 & 2015. Niall is Professor of Architectural Practice at University College London; was a visiting professor at the University of California Los Angeles from 2012-2013 and was appointed Lord Norman Foster Visiting Professor of Architecture, Yale University for 2014-2015. He acted as chair of the RIBA Awards Group from 2007 to 2009.
Niall McLaughlin has a particular interest in the complexities of designing for dementia. He collaborated extensively with the Alzheimerʼs Society of Ireland to conceptualise, design and inhabit their first new building, the multi-award-winning Alzheimerʼs Respite Centre in Dublin. Niall has given numerous lectures on the subject, including to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment in 2010, and at The University of Strathclyde Specialist Dementia Centre in 2013. He was invited to present to the All-Party Parliamentary Group at the House of Lords on Housing and Care for Older People in 2014, and was Convenor of the 2015 RIBA Research Conference on Ageing.
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