Bland, Brown & Cole . Queens' College, Cambridge

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We have completed a number of projects for the College, the first of which was Lyon Court and the Fitzpatrick Hall (1990).
We were also appointed to improve facilities in the War Memorial Library (1994), upgrade sets in the Erasmus Building (Ł0.5m, 1997), refurbish the President's Lodge (Ł0.25m, 1997), the Fisher Building (Ł1.4m, 1998-2000), Owlstone Croft (Ł0.5m, 2001), Cripps Court (Ł2.1m, 2001-2003), and the addition of a new storey to Cripps Court to create the Stephen Thomas Teaching and Research Centre (Ł4.2m, 2007). Click on the map to view a larger plan of our work at the College.
Lyon Court:
This new court at Queens' College was designed to accommodate a sports building and a multi-purpose hall above an underground car park in such a way as to complete rather than compete with the original court by Powell and Moya (1973).
Using the same materials, we attempted to take the broad elements of the earlier buildings and unravel them to form a new courtyard with high-level terraces and a formal entrance from the Backs.

The roof form consciously echoes the gables of the red brick Fisher Building, its other neighbour, and, with the patent glazing and curtain walling, is an attempt to step the buildings down from the scale of the original development of the 'Sixties. Thus the view from the Backs belies the fact that both new buildings are, by the nature of the brief, large volumes with restricted openings built above floor level.
The whole scheme is surrounded by a stone wall that forms a new formal boundary to the College and continues the ancient wall by the side of the Grove.
The Squash Court building includes three courts, a billiard room and a multi-purpose room overlooking Queens' Green, whose functions include table tennis and reception use. There are changing and viewing facilities, with two of the courts backed by glass walls and visible from the courtyard.
Below the whole Court there are plant rooms, a wine cellar, stores and a car park for thirty-two cars.
"For a building whose brief required, in essence, a windowless box or boxes, Bland, Brown & Cole have pulled off something of elegance and panache. Theirs was the only competition entry to continue the courtyard theme of Cripps Court, Queens' and the medieval Cambridge colleges in general, and it works extremely well in relation to Powell and Moya's original phases and the Backs.
"Seeing the net result, it is hard to imagine an alternative approach to completing what the original architects started almost twenty years ago."
Charles Knevitt, Architectural Correspondent of The Times
Client: Queens' College, Cambridge Structural and Services Consultant: Ove Arup & Partners Quantity Surveyor: Davis Langdon & Everest Completion Date: January 1990 Contract Value: Ł4 million

War Memorial Library:
The War Memorial Library is part of Old Court, the original buildings of the College constructed in 1448/49, and Grade I Listed. The Library was formerly the College Chapel until 1891. In 1951 a new working library was constructed within the shell of the Old Chapel.

The College's brief for increased reader spaces had to be achieved without sacrificing adjacent residential sets and with minimal interference to the medieval fabric. All access for the Contractors was through the existing oak entrance door.
Entrance to the Library is gained through a stone-paved and refurbished 18th Century panelled Ante-Chapel, which contains the control desk and computer catalogue.
The ground floor is given over to bookstacks arranged around the 1950s structure. A new reinforced concrete slab, incorporating underfloor heating pipes, spans the brick vault of the crypt. At the east end, on the central axis, a spiral stair rises to the lower gallery, which encircles the Library.

There are two parallel rows of shelving, one against the blank external walls, the other forming a protective wall around the central mezzanine floor. The main reader area has the benefit of daylight on three sides. Two small spiral stairs give access to upper galleries that flank the east window. All the joinery is in oak.
The Law Library is linked to the Ante-Chapel by a new steel stair that affords readers direct route to the mezzanine floor. A small book store was fitted into the landing and a blocked-up first floor window was opened-up to reveal a 16th Century wall painting, now expertly restored.
"Bland, Brown & Cole's introduction of this major structure into a medieval building through a single opening - a metre wide arched door - is akin to the time old trick of putting a ship in a bottle."
Deborah Singmaster, The Architect’s Journal

Client: Queens' College, Cambridge Quantity Surveyor: Davis Langdon & Everest Structural Engineer: Peter Dann & Partners Limited Contractor: Morris Preston Limited Completion: January 1994 Contract Value: Ł316,000.00
The Stephen Thomas Teaching and Research Centre:
An additional floor of accommodation has been constructed on top of the four-storey Cripps Court building, containing tutorial and seminar rooms, fellows' sets and 18 student bed-sitting rooms.

The original in-situ concrete framed building, constructed in the 1970s, imposed physical limits on the detailing of the lightweight structure and cladding. Insulated metal composite roofing panels supported on galvanised steel purlins provided quick encapsulation of the new rooms, allowing the external zinc roof sheeting and wall caldding to proceed in parallel to the internal fit-out.
Summertime overheating is controlled by both solar shading and passive stack ventilation.
The dry construction had to meet stringent air-tightness performance requirements, high levels of thermal insulation and acoustic isolation of each tutorial room and study bedroom.
Client: Queens' College, Cambridge Quantity Surveyor: TP Associates Structural Engineer: Andrew Firebrace Partnership Services Consultant: Roger Parker Associates Contractor: Carter Builder Ltd Completion: Summer 2007