<span>The</span><span>Dorothy</span><span>Garrod</span><span>
Building</span>

The Dorothy Garrod Building

The Dorothy Garrod Building, Newnham College

In conjunction with Walters and Cohen Architects, Max Fordham provided MEP and acoustic design services for this new-build student accommodation project for Newnham College, Cambridge.

The project involved the demolition of an existing 1960’s student accommodation block and its replacement with a new building comprising 84 en-suite student bedrooms, cafe and conference facilities, ancillary office accommodation, gym, party room and a new porter’s lodge.

At the project's inception, the College expressed a desire to make the new building as sustainable and low energy as possible. To this end, the building's fabric is very well insulated to minimise heat loss, with generous windows to provide good levels of daylight in the bedrooms and offices, as well as sufficient ventilation openings to maintain thermal comfort through natural ventilation alone. The glazing is carefully specified to encourage sufficient solar gain in the winter, to help offset the artificial heating load to the rooms, while ensuring the peak summertime temperatures are limited within acceptable parameters.

The M&E plant was selected to maximise energy efficiency and is located centrally in a basement plantroom. A lightwell has been provided to the plantroom to simplify future major plant replacement and also provide access to the external environment in order to facilitate the retrofit of heat pumps as a low carbon alternative to the gas boilers presently installed. A 110m2 PV array is installed on the roof to generate electricity for use in the building and to export to the grid.

The Dorothy Garrod Building was awarded RIBA East Building of the Year 2019.

Architect

Walters & Cohen

Value

£21M

Completion

2018

Client

Newnham College, University of Cambridge

Dennis Gilbert Info
Large windows with generous openings promote good levels of daylight and natural ventilation. Ventilation panels behind 'hit-and-miss' brickwork at ground floor level permit secure night time ventilation.
Dennis Gilbert Info
Illumination behind the 'hit-and-miss' brickwork panelling animates the main entrance at night time.
SDC Builders Info
Aerial view of the building, showing the accessible rooftop terrace and extent of PV array

Image: Dennis Gilbert

Architect

Walters & Cohen

Value

£21M

Completion

2018

Client

Newnham College, University of Cambridge

2019 RIBA National Award

2019 RIBA National Award

2019 RIBA East Building of the Year

2019 RIBA East Building of the Year

See all awards