Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —

Darwin College— Cambridge

Client(s)

Darwin College, Cambridge

Collaborator(s)

Joel Gustafsson Consulting / MHA Structural Design / 3GCC

Darwin College, Cambridge, has received unanimous support from Cambridge City Council’s planning committee for a programme of building and development to support the College’s goals of achieving carbon neutrality over the next decade. The plans bring together two separate but connected bodies of design work developed by 5th Studio Architects and Caruso St John Architects, to take advantage of the College’s riverside location to harness innovative river-source heat pump technology, and to create much-needed new social spaces for the College community.

Building refurbishment

A switch to sustainable energy sources is only feasible if the existing building fabric is first improved to limit heat loss as much as possible. 5th Studio and Caruso St John between them will therefore oversee refurbishment measures across the site, to support its decarbonisation. These measures principally comprise improved glazing and insulation, sensitively incorporated into the historic fabric. Simultaneously Caruso St John have designed a new social space beneath Howell Killick, Partridge and Amis’ 1966 Dining Hall – the Garden Room – which also forms part of the planning application.

The Pump House

King’s Mill and Bishop’s Mill were parts of a series of working structures on Laundress Green and the Mill Pond that drew energy from the river for their operation.
Indicative view from Sheep’s Green local nature reserve across the Mill Pond towards the Pump House (right) which has a strong presence on the river, softened by a planted screen to increase biodiversity. The Granta pub (left) once had a brewery which formed part of the historic working environment on the Mill Pond. Image: Nora Walter
The decarbonisation of Darwin College includes a new energy centre - The Pump House, which harnesses energy from the River Cam – and fabric improvements to the college’s existing buildings including Newnham Grange and Newnham Terrace.

5th Studio have designed a Pump House, next to the River Cam, which will house the technology required to harvest heat from the river to provide low-carbon heating and hot water for the College’s central Cambridge estate. A network of pipes will distribute heat to individual buildings, in the first river-source heat pump network at this scale planned for central Cambridge.

The Pump House will accommodate the necessary equipment, including heat pumps, circulation pumps, filtration equipment, thermal stores, expansion equipment and ancillaries to form a fully operational central heating system. 5th Studio’s design promises to create a sympathetic addition to the College site, which celebrates its innovation, raises the profile of sustainable solutions

The Pump House joins a family of idiosyncratic historic industrial buildings, including water mills and granaries, in what was once a busy working environment powered by the river. Its form and material quality are shaped by its relationship to the river and the space it needs to draw energy from it. The Pump House foregrounds its sustainable technology and being visible from the Mill Pond, a public space in the heart of the city, offers opportunity for engagement with the public as well as Darwin College’s community.

The Pump House is composed of three main parts which grow out of the river-source process: the Watergate which forms the civil engineering core; the Technical Armature which raises the non-river equipment above future flood levels; and the Habitat Enclosure which seeks to increase biodiversity.
Indicative view of the Pump House from the college gardens, where the open ground floor and four storey structure intensifies the relationship with the river.

Related

Trinity College — Cambridge

Working across a range of scales, from estate studies, to carefully made contemporary interventions within existing buildings

Goldsmiths College Energy Centre — London

Conference Suite and Glass Bridge, Darwin College — Cambridge

Renovation of a historic terrace and dramatic glass bridge as a threshold to the colleges dining hall

CONTACT

studio@5thstudio.co.uk

We are keen to receive CVs and short portfolios from Part 1 and Part 2 designers. Please contact us via recruitment@5thstudio.co.uk

We actively encourage qualified applicants from underrepresented backgrounds to apply.

LONDON Unit 14 21 Wren Street London WC1X 0HF t +44 (0)20 7837 7221 View on Google Maps

CAMBRIDGE Darkroom Gwydir Street Cambridge CB1 2LJ t +44 (0)1223 516009 View on Google Maps