(Left) Pemborke St. Edmund’s Christ King’s St John’s
Jesus Magdelene Downing Trinity Hall
Clare Sidney Sussex Gonville & Caius Girton St. Catherine’s
(Above) Homerton Emmanuel Newham Churchill
Selywn Corpus Christi Peterhouse Queen’s Murray Edwards Robinson Trinity Fitzwilliam
College typologies Plan @ 1:5000
[51] Aerial view of some Cambridge Colleges in central locations, and the Backs by the River Cam
NOVUM COLLEGE
Principal Types of the Self-Contained College When colleges began to occupy physical space, they developed a set of principal types, which are the Hall, the Library, Master’s lodge, Porter’s lodge, Chapel, Buttery, and Accommodation blocks [fig.52]. These principal types are necessary to sustain the self-contained community. In the main design section, the thesis will examine case studies of the existing colleges’ layouts and their organisation of these types.
1) Chambers & studies
4) Hall
2) Library
5) Porter’s Lodge
3) Chapel
6) Master’s Lodge
[52] 6 principal collegiate types
Traditional Layout within College Chamber College accomondation blocks contain originally two types of spaces, the main space(a) and their ‘studies’ (a’). The main space was a shared bedroom whilst students enjoy a private study room, each with a window, as illustrated in diagram [fig. 53]. The use of communal space in this traditional setting suggests that privacy preferences emphasised study privacy over more personal (i.e. sleeping) privacy.
A a1 a2
a1
B Chamber b1 study 1 b2 study 2
A a2 b1
Fellow and their students therefore have very close and personal relationships, enhanced by the chamber’s layout, where each room has a shared space for beds and two closet ‘studies’.
Chamber study 1 study 2
B b2 c1
C c1 c2
Chamber study 1 study 2
D d1 d2
Chamber study 1 study 2
C c2 d1
D
Staircases
d2
[53] Plan of a typical garret floor layout showing chambers and studies
Apart from these types of the principal blocks, the Colleges have a specific circulation strategy: a vertical layout defined by staircases, which also contributes to the self-containment of the learning community. Many believe that this traditional vertical layout is introduced as a model using Robery de Croyland’s House [fig. 54], which belonged to King’s Hall in 1337 before it was merged to form Trinity College (TIMESCALE Temporal residential status of the City; Display of the relationship between the College’s activities and the city’s fluctuating demographics 1886). The staircases provide the nuclei of social interactions within the college. The strictly vertical layout became a tradition, in that each staircase contained a College fellow and his chosen scholars to learn and live together. Each level of the staircase therefore has only 1-2 rooms. Horizontal circulation is restrictive as you cannot walk through from one end to another end of the building block. This vertical configuration encouraged intimate relationships between the scholars and the teacher. This is a key idea that will be revisited in the main design section. L K D
Hall
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01
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Middle solar Celar under it
C 2
Solar next to it Celar under it
B E
Solar next Cundyt Celar under it
B Kitchen
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Two rooms
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Solar over gate
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1:20
[54] Robert de Croyland’s House plan Typical arrangement of a college with chambers of staircase A-M known as ‘proto-trinity’, Kings hall 1337)
10 m
Robert de Croyland’s House section 1 chamber beneath it celarium 2 upper level: solarium 3 half Storey (extentsion 1) 4 garret (extension 2)
G
Under Master’s study Under Master’s chamber
Robert de Croyland’s House Table showing number of students occupying in each chamber
no. of occupants
THE COLLEGES
Photographic survey: staircase M, Trinity College
[55] Two lit-up staircores in St Catherine’s College and one main one in the centre.
Staircases in Peterhouse and Kings College
The Original Idea
Colleges within the context of the University ‘For much of their histories (of medieval universities), the colleges were everything, and university counted for little.’ (Tapper 2008) The polarity in Tapper’s Statement between the College and the University would be confusing for the public. The purpose of my research is to reflect on the historical roots and educational value of this polarity to advance a few thoughts on the changes in the significance, functional role and control of the colleges to the university (and vice versa). This allows me to question and revise the expression of collegiate learning and living by examining the Cambridge Colleges within the context of contemporary teaching ideologies.
[57] University: Senate House located in the City centre
Until the mid-19th Century, both Cambridge and Oxford are comprised of a group of colleges with a small central university administration, rather than university in the common sense (Cobban 2006) [fig. 56]. Hence, an alternative perspective on these interdependent yet separate bodies is that the University is the federation of Colleges. Due to their inclusive nature, they are governed by a federal system, and federalism suggest the possibility of a fluctuating power balance between the centre (University) and the periphery (Colleges), which Cobban defines as the fundamental centrifugal character of the University with the Colleges. The University, on the other hand, was ‘almost hidden’ (Howard 2010). Deborah Howard’s writing on ‘Fabric of Rivalry’ vividly depicted how the rivalry of Town and Gown was played out in the townscape of Cambridge. The earliest University building was ‘tucked into a small court’ known as the School Quadrangle, dating back to 1370-1475. It was not until the erection of James Gibb’s Senate House (1722-1730) that the University itself acquired a public presence [fig. 57].
12
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Centre: University Periphery: Colleges [56] University as the confederation of colleges
1
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Peterhouse 1284
University founded 1209
Clare 1326
Distribution of Learning: Arise of faculties
Colleges took part in this faculties phenomenon by funding the construction and releasing land to erect University buildings. Resources necessary for new courses in the arts, architecture and archaeology were generously donated by Richard Fitzwilliam of Trinity College. Between 1896 and 1902, Downing College sold parts of its land to build Downing Site, comprising new scientific laboratories for anatomy, genetics and Earth Sciences. During the same period, the New Museum Site [fig. 59]was erected, including the Cavendish Laboratory, which has since moved to the West Cambridge Site [fig. 63], and other departments for chemistry and medicine. At the outskirt of the city, the Sidgwick Site houses the arts and humanities departments, e.g. the History departmnet [fig. 60] to the West, and the Biomedical Campus houses many research institutes and the Addenbrooke’s Hospital to the South. These new departmental sites result in a redistribution of learning, as shown on diagram [fig. 58] in dotted lines. Deborah Howard describes this as the university ‘escaping from the confines of the college rooms to egalitarian modernity’ (2010). For example, a professor might be a fellow in one College but teaches in another department, a student may live in one College but travel to another department to listen to a professor’s lecture (who may have a fellowship in a different College), and the student returns to supervision in their own College, creating a new map of learning. An extreme example of a how a student’s learning is distributed is shown on the next page.
Corpus Christi 1352 Trinity Hall 1350 Pembroke 1347 Caius 1348
The University has erected many more buildings since the 18th century. However, they are often tied to particular departments on the outskirts of the city, some of which are to be discussed in the next section. Therefore, the University does not have a public space within the city centre. In this thesis the design addresses this short coming, by creating an interface between the University and the City, through sharing spaces in a way that used to be exclusive to the collegiate environment.
Colleges becoming less academic and more residential The Cambridge University Act 1856 formalised the organisational structure of the university. At the same time, the study of many new subjects was introduced, such as theology, history and modern languages. Due to the specification and specialisation of new subject requirements, learning was distributed to faculties, out of the confines of the Colleges.
3 4 5 6
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[59]
[60] History department
[61]
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[62]
[63]
THE UNIVERSITY
‘Middle of a tremendous activity, which no one can call revolutionary, nor conventional’
The idea of a University has been discussed extensively by Newman (1852), Flexner (1930) and Kerr (1963). The medieval university, perceived as a ‘single community’ comparable to a ‘village with its priest’ (Kerr 1963), has evolved to a Town, a one-industry town with its intellectual oligarchy (faculties). With the new network of learning and Colleges’ expansion, it is comparable to Kerr’s idea of Multiversity in America, where the University transforms into a ‘city of infinite variety’. Resources and teaching are shared, and learning communities mixed. The distribution of learning created a more integrated network between the students and fellows of different Colleges within the University.
- Kerr (1963)
Opinions in the literature on the construction of these faculties vary. ‘Cambridge, defined by antiquity of its foundations, venerability of traditions, yet success in research and teaching to experiment and innovate’ (Goldie 1997). This suggests that not only are the faculties places of learning with complex practical requirements, but they also need to define intellectual and social aspirations of higher education. However, Blackman stated that ‘Departmental structures at Cambridge tend to evolve ad hoc, rather than being created afresh and clearly layout’, referring to the New Museum and Downing sites (1972).
new C
C F F
F
F
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KIngs 1441
Magdalene 1428
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Queens 1448
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Jesus 1496
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Trinity 1546
St. Catherine’s Christ’s 1473 1505
Changing nature of Collegiate environment
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Emmanuel Sidney Sussex 1584 1596
Downing 1800
St. John’s 1551
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Girton 1869 Fitzwilliam 1869
Downing 1800
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Hughs Hall 1885 Selwyn 1882
Newham 1871
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Churchill 1960
St. Edmund’s 1896
Murray Edwards 1954
Robinson Robinson 1979 Homerton 1976
Darwin 1964 Clarehall 1965 Lucy Cavendish 1965 Wolfson 1965
+ FACULTIES
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1 11
Faculties are highlighted in grey: 1 West Cambridge Site 2 Madingley Rise Site 3 Sidgwick Site 4 Silver Street/ Mill Lane site 5 New Museum Site 6 Downing Site 7 Old Addenbrookes site 8 Chemistry Dept. 9 Engineering/ Architecture Dept. 10 University Libary 11 Centre for Mathematical Science [58] Timeline of founding years of the Colleges and mapping of University or departmental sites
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Present 2013
St Edmunds College
2200
West Cambridge Site 14:00
Engineering Department
16:00
An extreme case of a student’s map of learning distributed in the City ‘I think I am proably the student who travels the most. I have to go down the Castle Hill from St Edmund college, through to the other end of town to Chemistry Laboratory, to most East corner of the West Cambridge site for the Schofield Centre (Geotechnical Centrifuge laboratory), and back to the engineering department for lab. Sometimes I have to go to all 4 sites in the same day.’ T.J., 1st year PHD Polar Studies
University Chemical Laboratory 10:00
The sociology literature that documented to this period of expansion describes the erection of individual faculties, but not the colleges. Examples include ‘The Natural Sciences and the Development of Animal Morphology in Late-Victorian Cambridge’ (Blackman 2007), ‘Natural History and the ‘New Biology’ (Nyhart, L.K 1996), and ‘The Cavendish Laboratory 1874-1974’ (Crowther J.G 1974). Many more writers have expressed opinions on the development of the other Science faculties (Forgan 1989, Greison 1978, Warwick 2003, Wilson Roberts 1980). The discourse was segregated into subject-based discussions and neglected the overall College and student movement. Much was written from the perspective of benefit to the faculties and the University, but not much was written about the changes in learning from the students’ perspective. For example, the founding of the Zoology department was to enable Cambridge to compete with universities under the German Model (Blackman 2007). He discussed how ‘the University was too impoverished to teach effectively... [there were] worried criticism of [how the] collegebased institution cannot compete with the state funded ones’. The Invisible Transformation within the Colleges Literature on the consequential impact of faculties teaching on the Colleges has been relatively meagre. The Colleges are seen to be strongly traditional, and therefore are assumed to be resistant to comprehensive changes. In contemporary discourse, where spatial models of higher educational institutions have been typified into Medieval, German, Campus, British models (Campos 2001), Cambridge is classified as an example of a medieval university. There is an assumption that the medieval model remains the same. However, this assumption fails to acknowledge that the relationship between the Colleges, the University, and the City have changed since the medieval times. In the next section, we examine the changes in the collegiate life, hence seeks for a more updated and contemporary understanding of the ‘medieval’ University.
[64] Cripps Building, student accomondation, St John’s College
Collegiality reassessed The medieval University today, functioning within the contemporary context, despite its strong heritage resistance however, is not the same. There is literature describing on the ‘decline of the Privilege’ and ‘modernisation’ of the university (Soares 1999). But both ‘Privilege’ and ‘Modernationsation’ are words with strong pejorative undertones, which suggested that it was once an outmoded, even fossilised, institution serving the interests of particular class of persons but has been much improved – modernised – thanks to a protracted period of reform (Halsey 2002).
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[65b] Map showing multiplicity of Colleges and distribution of learning to faculties
THE UNIVERSITY
Changing nature of Collegiate environment
THE UNIVERSITY
Changing nature of Collegiate environment
Collegiality reassessed (continued)
[66] Fellows’ garden in Emmanuel College
The thesis therefore argues that the medieval University today is a new type of higher education institution. As a new type of institution evolved from a traditional collegiate university model, the genesis and evolution of the self-contained learning system within the colleges is central to the transformation of the University. As yet, the concept of collegiality remains so fluid that there is perhaps no integrity to its meaning (Palfreyman 2002). The growing number of Colleges resulted in the multiplicity of individual self-contained learning communities, constituted of a parallel series of ‘hermetic institutions’ (Goldie 2007). The increase in the number of Colleges [fig. 65a] did not challenge collegiality, but instead competitions between colleges were encouraged (Tapper 2008) as a result of the multiplicity process, which further enhance the sense of pride and belonging of each individual college. After the faculties were erected, the self-contained College environments remained. Collegiality is, arguably, enhanced by the redistribution of learning that created an integrated map of learning through the University [fig. 65b]. The sense of individuality of the collegiate communities increases, with the Colleges remaining as the social cores to its members.
R Hall
R R
Master Lodge R
Library Porter’s Lodge
R
R
R
New court R
Residential (R)
R
chapel
R
Main court R
[67]
R
R R
Domestic rescale The addition of new colleges does not affect college life as much as the ways in which each college was expanding to match its new prime role as a place of accommodation. The College became proportionally more residential [fig. 67], as the new buildings built by the Colleges are mostly
NOVUM COLLEGE
Domestic rescale (continued)
The diagram shows how the percentage of residential spaces increased within Trinity College [fig. 68a], from the original 40% within the single Great Court, which contains all the principal elements of a traditional college, to today’s 85%, after the erection of Blue Boar Court, Angel Court, Burrells Fields, and the Wolfson Building [fig. 68b]. The sense of community is therefore not lost from the redistribution of learning or the faculties, but contested as the colleges grow in size. In Stone’s analysis of ‘the size and composition of the Oxford Study Body 1580-1010’, Stone has claimed that major shifts in the size of the study body (leading to increase in size of Colleges and erection of off-site accommodation) are powerful indicators of ‘critical changes in the inner dynamism of the institution’. The thesis further elaborates on this inner dynamism: when the college built additional accommodation buildings to fit more students to maintain the self-contained space, communal buildings are no longer in intimate connection with residences. The intrusions in the enclosing wall surface of a variety of large elements, such as chapel, dining hall, library, which fundamentally provide the basic unit of scale, are difficult to bring into a relationship that matches with the demand for student accommodations.
[68a] Trinity College residential ratio overtime
Wolfson Building Burrells Fields
Blue Boar Court Angel Court
[68b] (blue) Student acccomodation/ residential chambers
For new ‘built-in-bulk’, all-in-one colleges, a common challenge was finding the appropriate relationship between the large communal buildings and the domestic scale suitable for residences, and the sheer number of the latter that were called for (Mark Goldie 2007). For example, this was encountered in the architectural entries for the Churchill College, which was designed from scratch. The winning and built entry, by Richard Shepperd, [fig. 69, 70], is a core-periphery model consisting of ‘suburbs’ where there are nine main residential courts branched out and connected to the main court with the hall and chapel.
[69] Plan diagram of Churchill College
THE UNIVERSITY
Changing nature of Collegiate environment
[70] Churchill College, aerial view, 1980
‘How could 500 sizable rooms, in the upwards of fifty staircases, be provided, all within easy reach of communal facilities? The danger was sprawl.’ -Mark Goldie (2007)
NOVUM COLLEGE
1
2 3
TRINITYHALL
CENTRAL MAIN ORIGINAL COLLEGE SITES
[71] Wychfield Site, Trinity Hall College off-site accommodation
Trinity hall additional accomondation 1 Wychfield site 2 Bishop Bateman court/ 3 St Clement’s 1
Trinity Hall (pink) Two new accomodation sites North of college main site
Faculties/ Trinity Departments Hall
Clare
Gonville & Caius
Girton
2
1 CLARE COLLEGE
Clare college additional accomondation 1 Gillspie Centre 2 The Colony
Clare College (yellow) Two accomodation sites away from centre college main site only contains Hall, buttery and common rooms
THE UNIVERSITY
Changing nature of Collegiate environment
Girton additional accomondation 1 Wolfson Court
GIRTON COLLEGE
Girton College (blue) Additional accomondation located much nearer to city centre and university than university
West Cambridge site
Maths and science centre 1
GONVILLE AND CAIUS UL
Gonville & Caius College (green) Additional accomondation(West Road Site) located much further from city centre but promiximity to Sidgwick Site (Main Arts faculty buildings)and other departments.
New Museum site
Sidgwick Site
Mill lane site
Downing site
Old addenbrookes site Arch/ Engineering
Chem.
Major and minor sites
tight!
Collegiality is also contested as the Colleges ran out of spaces on the main site, and began building new accommodation blocks separate from the main site. One of the consequences is that the original supervision system was eroded. If students were living out of College, coming into college for supervision seems the same as travelling out to a department, and hence the functionality of the College as a social and learning base became redundant. For example, a Gonville and Caius student living in the out-of-college accommodation (green), such as the West Road Site, would not need to go into college unless for specific reasons, such as socials or committee meetings. Yet, if the student’s department is in Sidgwick Site, which is adjacent to the college’s new accommodation site, the learning and living locations for that student is once again proximal, except that the learning location is shared with other colleges. Hence Colleges are no longer self- contained in both the living and learning senses.
NOVUM COLLEGE
THE UNIVERSITY
Changing nature of Collegiate environment
F C c
Colleges: originally Self contained environment
Learning distributed to faculties; new off-site accommodations
New Collegiate environment that is no longer exclusive
SUMMARY Through examining Cambridge Colleges within the context of contemporary teaching ideologies, their resistance, adaptation, and evolution in their educational role), the thesis unfolds how the role of the colleges and value of collegiate life have shifted. Over the past 30 years with the massification of higher education and the consequential urgent expansion of the university, the study chambers where students and fellows live, sleep, pray, study together in a vertical block linked by one staircase is slowly shifting towards a vast hall of residence in central locations of the city. As learning is distributed to faculties, Colleges become less academic. The undercurrent of the distribution of learning to faculties reveals a phenomenon which central locations become unprecedentedly residential; traditional supervision system eroded; sense of college community contested, as the Colleges adopt major and minor sites. These topics offer new perspective towards the colleges of Cambridge. Looking at how the colleges withstand comprehensive changes reveals an insight into the unspoken changes and alterations of the social configuration and spatial function of the colleges, which are located in an ideology where urbanism and development has traditionally been suppressed. With learning distributed to faculties, the Colleges become less academic. To accommodate the increased intake of students the Colleges built outside of the main collegiate site, creating major and minor sites. The Colleges are not as exclusive as it seems anymore because of the reasons above. Exclusivity is outdated. Therefore should one be designing a new college, the thesis argues that collegiality is not reliant upon exclusivity or inaccessibility of the site, but is built upon the principal elements, which are carefully crafted so they are not out-scaled by the residential element.
£
Finance and Procurement
Novum College Introduction iii.
CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP WITHIN UNIVERSITY Emerging entrepreneurial aspects of the Colleges; Procurement for a new college
Behind the social and physical context, there is an unarticulated factor, that is the financial aspects of the authorities which give power to drive(or restrict) the growth of the University and Colleges, forming the focus of this section.
NOVUM COLLEGE
A Business Platform Contemporary college focus: commercialised Colleges have always been operating as individual financial entities, and the Colleges differ in wealth and endowment. Today, for all Colleges, each undergraduate that they take incurs a financial loss. The cost of teaching an undergraduate is estimated to be around £18k in the University of Cambridge, whilst the student fee is £9k, therefore there is a loss per student admitted. Hence, apart from the wealthiest Colleges, most Colleges have sought new ways to generate income for their individual accounts. This leads to a recent emergence of a new collegiate type: large conference spaces, and guest accommodation. It is not a new idea for the exchange of knowledge with people outside the university: After Cambridge was described as a studium generale in a letter by Pope Nicholas IV in 1290 and confirmed as such by Pope John XXII in 13181 (Hackett 1970), it became common for researchers from other European medieval universities to come and visit Cambridge to give lecture courses. However, these arrangements ‘were not of commercial purposes’ (Trevyland 2006). Today, the Colleges are advertised as an academic platform for guests from outside the university to visit and participate in a globalised exchange of knowledge. Newer colleges, such as Robinson, have large purpose-built conference rooms and auditoriums, which were unprecedented in previous colleges [fig. 72]. Traditional colleges, mostly located in the city centre, would transform their existing spaces to formal functions [fig. 73,74]. In doing so, apart from the role of housing the learning community, the Colleges lend itself to a successful business model: a commercialised organisation that hosts conference events. The only difference is that the guests can experience staying in an academically respected college instead of staying in a hotel. The thesis will discuss the potential of accommodating these blurred boundaries between these functions and the potential sharing of these spaces in the new college in the design section.
[72] Robinson College Conference Hall: fully air-conditioned, with a raked floor and normal seating capacity of 240 (270 with reduced size stage), the auditorium is designed as a multi-purpose theatre.
[73] Dining hall in Jesus College transformed to fine dining room for private hires and special events
Finance and Procurement
[75] College plan of Robinson College which resemblences a typical plan of a large convention centre with theatre and auditorium rather than a normal Collegaite courtyard layout.
Fitzwilliam and Gonville & Caius earned £409,000 and £146,872 from conferencing accommodation respectively.
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Figures extracted from Varsity article ‘Old, Rich, Landed and Loaded’ 11th july 2012
‘Set on the banks of the river Cam in stunning historic surroundings, King’s provides the ultimate venue for any event. From residential conferences, corporate dinners, private parties, receptions to awards ceremonies.’
- Extract from ‘Conference and Dinning at Kings’’ brochure.
[74] Events host in Kings college with Kings college chapel in the Backdrop
NOVUM COLLEGE
The construction of large conference spaces and accommodation requires substantial funding. The existing Colleges can raise funds from alumni and existing endowment. However, the thesis is proposing a new College. Therefore, it suggests that it can be funded by external sponsorship.
Charitable foundations and Corporate Sponsorships There are existing sponsors within the University, many are charitable foundations. For example, the William Gates Building in West Cambridge Site is sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Sainsbury’s Laboratory is sponsored by Gatsby Charitable Foundation.
On-going benefits for Corporate Sponsors There are also sponsorships from corporate bodies, but the key difference between charity and corporate sponsorship is that there is a clear benefit to the corporate involved in the sponsorship. In the engineering department, the annual research income is over £30m, of which one third came from collaboration with corporate sponsors. The chemistry department has a Corporate Associates Scheme in which the education and learning environment can benefit from the sponsorship, whilst the corporate associates can benefit from the pool of talent and skills that the University’s knowledge community provides. Corporate sponsorships have funded the construction of physical spaces in the University. For example, the Unilever Building [fig. 76] in the chemistry department is sponsored by Unilever, a multinational consumer goods company. It owns brands such as Dove, Cif, Ben and Jerry’s, Lipton, Rexona. The Unilever Building provides an environment which ‘enables the [Unilever Centre] to work on blue sky science and commercially orientated projects, and importantly as an academic institute… The Centre benefits from a strong interaction through funded research projects with Unilever but also has the freedom to work with other groups in Industry and Academia’ (Unilever Centre’s website accessed in 2014). This is an example of an existing interactive model of how the sponsor has on-going interactions with the University. The thesis argues for the same type of interactive and mutually beneficial relationship between the corporate sponsor and the University, rather than merely sponsoring a one-off physical space, such as a lecture theatre. Therefore, the thesis proposes a scenario where the client for the Novum College could be a technological company, for example, AstraZeneca.
[75] Sainsbury’s Laboratory interior, exterior and laboratories
[76] Tree of Knowledge in the Unilever Library Centre for Molecular Informatics
Finance and Procurement
Client: AstraZeneca In a recent newspaper article, on 18th July 2014, the company has revealed interest to invest and build its new £330m global headquarters in Cambridge. “There’s a lot of benefit […] from scientists exchanging ideas. There are experiments we can do working together, and being next to each other is just going to make that much easier to happen,” said Mr Pangalos, the Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca has already announced plans to collaborate with many of its new neighbours on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in the south of the city. It also plans to work with scientists from the the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK in Cambridge Apart from being able to tap into the academic talent and expertise in biomedical science of the University, the plans then ‘formed a key plank in fending off a £70bn take over approach by US rival Pfizer earlier this year.’ (Ronald 2014) AstraZeneca is therefore interested in investing in Cambridge. Mr Soriot, the chief executive of AstraZeneca, believes that ‘the move to Cambridge underlined AstraZeneca’s “unique” research culture.’ The thesis therefore uses this as an opportunity to argue further for a directly interconnected and integrated environment by building a new College.
Integr ated w o cultur e; Skil rk and ree ar ls and talents ch
C
AstraZeneca
ÂŁ
ÂŁ
ÂŁ
SUMMARY Colleges are commercialised to finance their individual accounts. A new collegiate type emerged: Large conference halls, and subsequently guest accommodation. The Colleges adopt a business model to use the academic platform to host events and generate additional income. This reveals a new layer to the collegiate environment in additional to the pedagogical and social roles of the College. This gives an updated overview of the Colleges and the thesis will integrate these new aspects into the overall design to create a reappraisal of the Colleges. Precisely because it is a New College, it lacks alumni support and needs substantial funds from an external source. The thesis argues for the mutual and on-going benefits of corporate sponsorships over the one-off financial support that charitable foundations give, and suggests a potential corporate sponsor: AstraZeneca, which has very recently showed interest and financial capability to invest in Cambridge.
Novum College Introduction iv.
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Analysis
TRINITY COLLEGE T G C
[77] Brief drawing for Trinity Subeterranean Learning Infrastructure
How provocative can we be when creating a sustainable Collegiate City?
10,000m3 Proposed Subteranean Infrastructure The Great Court, Trinity College, U.K.
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A0_3 [78] Trinity Subterranean Learning Infrastructure
Novum College Introduction iv.
PROVOCATIVE DESIGN WITHIN AN EXISTING COLLEGIATE SITE Radical take on altering the Great Court, Trinity College
How provocative can we be when creating a sustainable Collegiate City?
The illustration on the left page illustrates a radical take on exploring the potential of redistributing learning back into the collegiate environment. It proposes a strategy to maximise the capacities of the Colleges in central locations, and to integrate departmental spaces back into the college dormitories, as shown in the brief drawing in order to reinstate the original idea of self-conained learning and living evnironment of the Colleges. The intervention, set in the Great Court in Trinity College, takes into account of the traditional straircases and current conditions of the chambers, as shown in the composition drawing for the brief [fig. 77]. It utilises the vast unused courtyard spaces to reinterpret the Collegiate community within the context of contemporary teaching ideologies, with minimal disturbance to the listed buildings; high transparency, inclusivity, and connectivity, by going subterranean.
It leads to the following questions – • How should Colleges occupy urban space in the 21st century? • How can the Colleges function with the University at the same time giving something back to the life of the City? • How can one increase connectivity, transparency and sense of community within the Colleges? • How and to what extent can architectural schemes and designed spaces reconstruct the social configurations that have been altered from their original design and purpose? • What is the potential to create a new living and working culture, at the same time suggesting a new interpretation of the college community? • And finally: today, at a time when the colleges are developing towards an integrated social and learning environment, where exclusivity is no longer relevant, what will a new college be like? The next section will address these issues in the form of a new College – the Novum College.
Novum College
A NEW COLLEGE For the University of Cambridge, U.K.
A new College is proposed for the University of Cambridge as a design study. It is an evolution in a way of how a new College typology can relate to the new forces described in the previous sections. In turn, it provides a platform to rethink the contemporary spirit for collegiatlity within the University as well as projecting a new kind of urbanism in the City.
[79] Collage: Overview of College in context of the Site
How should a new College occupy urban space in the 21st century?  
[ The City ]
Role 1: Cambridge as a high technology cluster
[ The Colleges ]
Role 1: Colleges to provide private accommodation Role 2: Cambridge as a focus for learning, research and for sciencebased institutions of international repute
Role 3: Cambridge as a medium-sized growing city Role 4: Cambridge as a regional centre for the public sector
Role 2: College to provide an cross-interdisciplinary and intimate learning environment
Role 5: Colleges to support the university in terms of teaching and investments
Role 4: Colleges to host conferences and academic or business events
Role 5: Cambridge as an international tourism destination
Role 4: Colleges as a social core for students and fellows and promote commensality
[79] Cambridge Role Diagram
[ The Hybrid ]
New types Traditional collegiate types
Master’s Lodge Porter’s Lodge Accommodation
The diagram on this page shows the summarised roles of the City [fig. ] and also the Colleges. These roles show areas which they can overlap. For example, the role of the Cambridge as a focus for learning, research of international repute is closely linked to the role of the Colleges hosting conferences and academic events.
Hall Library Buttery
Traditional collegiate types New types
The new College investigates the relationships between these roles of the Colleges and the City and creates a hybrid environment that relates to these qualities. The new hybrid relationships such as shared conference spaces, office and meeting rooms and a new restaurant that shares the kitchen with the Hall are examples of introducing new elements to co-exist with the traditional collegiate types, which will be further discussed in the Programme section.
Restaurant Conference Hall Offices Hotel
Novum College The New College
THE BRIEF
A Hybrid Collegiate environment that brings the City and the University together The design study is based on a scheme that brings the University and City together in a collegiate environment for the continued growth of both.
[79] Collage to illustrate players involved in the programme
The brief collage [fig. ] shows the transition of the University from the Middle Ages to the introduction of new players and developments within the City, linked by the River Cam. The researched issues in the previous sections have formed the driver for the brief of the design study. The growth of the City relies on the growth of the University, despite appearing as two distinct communities. The emergence of high technological industries adds a new layer to the dominating higher education industry within the City, and forms a backbone for the future growth of the University and the City. During this process of growth, especially during the period of massification of higher education and the urgent expansion of the University in the last 30 years, the original and intended self-contained living and learning environment in the Colleges had been eroded. The scheme of the proposal therefore has 3 goals: first, to reassess the contemporary collegiate environment, challenge the traditional exclusive environment and reappraise the original collegiate types and offer a new interpretation of college community; second, the strategy will engage a potential corporate sponsor and explores the potential of integrating new elements to the existing collegiate types; and together to achieve the third overall goal to create an impact on the City in the form of a new urban landscape that is open, inclusive, engaging, flexible, and interactive.
SILVER STREET
Restaurant
Kitchen
Hall
Porter’s lodge
Library
Bar Master’s garden
Hotel lobby Conference Hall Hotel rooms
Student accommondation
Fellows
TRUMPINGTON
LAUNDRESS LANE
Public square
Master’s Lodge
ROOM PROGRAM LITTLE ST MARYS
Students x150 Postgraduates x200 Masters lodge Master’s garden Fellows x30 Library Bar Porter’s lodge Hall Buttery Restaurant Hotel Car park x 20 Reception Back of House Conference Hall Spill out area
Novum College The New College
THE HYBRID PROGRAMME Reappraisal of the principle collegiate types
- Porters Lodges - Gates - Courtyards - Hall - Library - Accommodation rooms - Staircases
Introduction and integration of new elements
- Administration - Offices - Hotel - Conference Hall - Restaurant
The design study proposes a new collegiate model that is a hybrid space of student accommodation, learning and teaching spaces, offices, hotel, retail, and public spaces. The diagram on the left shows the spaces needed for all the elements to scale and laid out in a simplified flat-pack manner, to form the basis massing for a plan. The table below [fig. ] shows the room list and their areas. For example, the The accommodation blocks are 9 m wide, which is the typical width of College blocks. This will be further discussed in the section of the individual types. The position of each types considers its relationships with other types, entrances, and circulation.
ROOM LIST AND AREAS Students x150 Postgraduates x200 Masters lodge Master’s garden Fellows x30 Library Bar Porter’s lodge Hall Buttery
35m2/ student 20m2/ student 320m2 400m2 40m2/ Fellow 540m2 30m2 36m2 320m2 200m2
9mx50m blocks x 11 = 450 = 4950m2 9mx50m blocks x 4 = 450(4) = 1800m2 ground area 9mx9m = 81m2; 4 level house 20mx20m 9x50m blocks x 3 = 450(3) = 1350m2 ground area 20mx9m=180m2; 3 level house 3mx10m, 1.5m2/seat; seats 45 9mx4m 10mx32m, seats 110 60% of Hall, caters for both restaurant and hall
Restaurant Hotel Car park x 20 Reception Back of House
300m2 2500m2 300m2 100m2 30m2
30x10m2, 1.8m2/seat; seats 160 ground area 20mx15m; 75 rooms, 8 level tower 4.8mx2.4m per car park space
Conference Hall Spill out area
450 m2 100 m2
20mx 22.5m, seats 500
[79] Room list and areas schedule
With this combination of collegiate and non-collegiate; public and private elements, the thesis argues for a new college typology that is inclusive and productive to a potential corporate sponsor, whilst simultaneously critically reassess collegiality within the context of contemporary teaching ideologies and living environment in the University.
[fig. ] Initial sketch
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Massing Options These foam models at 1:500 explore the potential of 1)strips of buildings forming internal courtyards; 2)Strips of buildings forming a courtyard within a courtyard to create a U shaped internal street, and a courtyard in the middle; 3) an inverted cascaded pyramid with a central void to allow a all habitable spaces. Option 4) looks at the potential of blocks comprise volumes of different heights. The roof of one block can act as the terrace of the adjacent, taller block, and the spaces underneath could be connected to form a large atrium space. 5) is a radical option, to show the variety of types one can do with the same volume of foam. They could be connected to each staircase on the ground and become individual study blocks, this leads to model 6), where there are 6 building blocks with sufficient space (12-20m) between them. The upper level is slightly smaller than the lower level, creating 2.5m terraces for the building. smaller than the lower level to allow light in, as well as creating 2.5m terraces for the building.
[fig. ] Prelimiary sketch plan
Novum College The New College
OCCUPYING THE SITE Physical Characteristics of the Mill Lane Site
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Set in the inner City of Cambridge [fig. ], it explored how a typical college site can evolve and negotiate new spaces in an open and engaging manner. It is a medium sized site for a college; see the site plan, fig. for comparison with its surrounding colleges such as Queens College, St Catherine’s College, Corpus Christi College and Pembroke College. The drawing on the left page [fig. ] shows the initial massing options of the site to incorporate all the listed spaces in the programme, after experimenting with a series of massing models to test the options for occupying the site.
St. Catherine’s College
Corpus Christi College
Pembroke College Queens College
THE SITE
[fig. ] Site plan
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Novum College
Site surroundings and context
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Site photos of the current perimeter along the site
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[79] East side of site: Trumpington Street
[79] South side of site: River Cam
Novum College The New College
REAPPRAISAL OF COLLEGIATE TYPES Programme part i.
- Gates - Porters Lodges - Courtyards - Hall - Library - Master’s Lodge - Accommodation rooms - Staircases
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Gates Novum College
Reappraisal of the principle collegiate types
The New College adopts the traditional type of gateway of that early Colleges, where the entrance is ‘not marked by any tower, and the eaves or the parapet of the adjoining buildings were carried over it without any change of level.’ (Willis 1886). Like Corpus Christi’s gateway, the entrance to the new College from Trumpington Street, highlighted in the plan below, is marked by a plain archway. There are different settings of the gateways according to the time of the day. This involves the metal gate, main wooden door that fills the entire archway, and a small opening within the wooden door, they act as subtle indicator of the College’s ‘openness’. For example, the series of photographs below capture the gate of Selywn College at different periods of the day.
Metal gates 1 Trinity Hall’s College Gate 2 Emmanual College Gate Wooden doors 3 St Johns North Court Gate 4 St Edmunds College B Door 5 Magdalene College 6 Corpus Christi College Gate 7 Sidney Sussex College Gate 8 Christ’s College Gate 9 Trinity College, Whewell’s Court Gate
06:00 - 19:30
1930
19:30 - 22:00
22:00 - 06:00
External entrances: 1 Trinity College 2 Peter House 1
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Internal offices: 4 Murray Edwards College 5 Emmanuel College 3
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Transition Space outside porter’s lodge: 6 Christ’s College 7 Magdalene College
Downing College: A different case 8 Open entrance, notice boards in the exterior 9 Porter’s Lodge
Porter’s Lodge Novum College
Reappraisal of the principle collegiate types
The design study identified three main spaces in the Porter’s Lodges for the new College: The external entrance for the porters (1st row of photos on the left page), the internal office space of the porters, with the pigeon holes and delivery storage spaces (2nd row), the transition space between the gateway and the first court with notice boards (3rd row). There are two porter’s lodges in the new College, one on the East of the College and the other on the West. The porter’s lodge on the West is located within the library building. The plans below show the layout configurations.
Courtyards Novum College
Reappraisal of the principle collegiate types
Court · yard
noun. ‘An unroofed area that is completely or partially enclosed by walls or buildings, typically one forming part of a castle or large house.’ -definition
The Defining Element Courtyards in Cambridge colleges exceed the definition of ‘An unroofed area that is completely or partially enclosed by walls or buildings’; it has instead become the defining element of colleges. This is because each building has its own and only functions, as shown in the typologies of the colleges, and since circulation is restrictive within the chambers, the courtyard plays the role to connect these buildings, visually and functionally. The diagram above illustrates the individual staircase entrances in red arrows and black arrows represent the visual connection of buildings towards the central courtyard. There are in total 6 courtyards in the new College, as shown below in the plan. With the span of 34m x 34.5m, First Court is the biggest. It is also the grandest, like most of the first courts in traditional colleges, because it forms the backdrop of the introductory view to give the sense of transition from the town immediately after the entrance through the small gateway. Conference Court is essentially the spill out area for and ramp to the Conference Hall. It is also the view from the restaurant. The Public court acts as the back garden of the Colleges, where the structures and forms are more loose, and everyone is allowed to walk over the grass.
115m
Cripps court (post graduates)
80m
Single Court Downing College
Old court (undergraduates)
Detached new court Selywn
Trinit y
Colle
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Trinity
Stree t
Trinity Lane Senate House Passge
The backs
River Cam
Queens Road
Site Confines Gonville and Caius
Distant memorial court Clare College
Open court St Catherines
North Court Second Court Chapel Court
First Court
Additive Courts Jesus College
Courtyards Novum College
Reappraisal of the principle collegiate types Construction phrases We can understand the formation of the courtyard in early colleges through the mapping of its construction sequence [fig. ]. Courtyards are formed from the accumulation of college buildings; whilst hundreds of years later, newer colleges are to be built in practically an one-off process and within a much shorter time span. The courtyard configurations in the newer colleges become more organised and regular withou the site constraints that older Colleges have. For example, fig. compares the formation sequence between Peterhouse College and Churchill College. Peterhouse (343 years - 1 court yard) 1290-1633 Buildings were built in different years, it was only after hundreds of years that the courtyard was enclosed and surrounded with buildings Example 2: Churchill (10 years- 12 courtyards) 1958 - 1968 An architectural competition was organised to design for Churchill College, in which the competition entries were criticised that the ‘Courtyards had been deemed the quintessence of collegiality’ by Collion Rowe, and that ‘the winning entry was the one more infected boy courtyard-itus, proposing no less than 20.’ This is defended by Mark Goldie as ‘arguably unfair’, due to ‘the challenge was tough, and to fit 500 rooms in upwards of 50 staircases faces the danger of sprawl.’ The thesis argues that whilst designing a New College might face the challenge of the diseconomies of scale (as discussed in the introduction ii), it can adopt a variety of courtyard forms responding to the function and size of the surrounding buildings, instead of creating homogenous courtyards like in Churchill. The plan below shows the phrases on construction of the various courtyards in the new College over the course of 10 years.
Courtyards Novum College
Reappraisal of the principle collegiate types The Open Ground Level CIrculation Once you are in the College ground, the ground level is an open plan with a series of courtyards. This raises the collegiate types to the level above. The scales of different archways represent the level of privacy of the pathway. The Courtyards are then linked by a series of pathways of various scales. One would progress from the West Gate from the river, through a path directly below the walkway to the library, towards a the inviting arch under the office block towards the restaurant, or into the small opening of the corridor underneath the master’s lodge, through the hotel block, which eventually leads to the First Court. The plan below shows the circulation and highlights the public routes; the model photos demonstrate the different level of scales the pathway adopts to spatially dictate the circulation on the open ground level.