Níall McLaughlin’s buildings for Jesus College, Cambridge

‘There’s always a point when as an architect you come back to a building and it isn’t yours,’ says Níall McLaughlin as I join him for tea before exploring the first phase of his practice’s project for Jesus College, Cambridge. We meet in his new café which abuts the rear of the former Wesley House, a Methodist theological college built in 1921 to designs by Maurice Webb in a neo-Tudor style, acquired by Jesus in 2014. The other side of the café looks out onto a playing field, which, when I visit, lies deserted on the cold winter’s day – in stark contrast to the quietly bustling café.

As stipulated by the planners, the café stands distinct from the old building as a kind of pavilion, separated by a corridor of glass, thus maintaining the integrity of the old façade. As McLaughlin half-jokingly notes, the café is like a mini version of Mies’s Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin; a single-storey structure, with flat, overhanging roof, supported by an undercroft on one side. Here, however, Mies’s steel is replaced by timber and brick, while the undercroft contains a bar. There are a number of clever and elegant touches: the way the timber columns thicken out in the centre to express the natural stress on the structure; the acoustic ceiling that allows for quiet conversations; the barrel-vaulted ceiling of the cellar bar, which opens out on to a sunken courtyard facing away from the part of the Webb buildings still occupied by the (teetotal) Wesleyan community.

A series of individual components will in time add up to a significant shift of the focus from the historic quadrangles

The café is one component of a three-phase project, with the current first phase also comprising common rooms, teaching and study spaces, a lecture hall, and 24 hotel-standard rooms plus three serviced apartments for visiting scholars. Later phases will yield a performing arts venue, gallery and archive. These are the project’s set pieces and were much publicised when the practice won the work in a 2014 competition. However, as far as phase one is concerned, much of the project is about working within the confines of the existing fabric – a series of individual components that will in time add up to a significant shift of the focus from the historic quadrangles.

In addition to the Webb buildings, the first phase has also dealt with the Rank Building, which was built in the 1970s to enclose the original three-sided courtyard along Jesus Lane. The college wanted to retain the building in some form, and the architect’s approach was to strip it back to its frame. But rather than a simple reclad, elements of the original façades have been kept visible in the thin vertical piers of brick and stone cappings that rise up through the building’s four storeys. 

These piers set the overall rhythm on both the courtyard and Jesus Lane sides of the building, with the new additions taking the form of timber boxes inserted into the existing fabric. On the road side, which is most often seen obliquely by drivers or pedestrians, the rhythms increase in tempo: from the two beats of the recessed balconies that look across the road to the gardens of Sidney Sussex College; to the eight beats of the ground storey’s rough-edged stone fins.

On the courtyard side, which is typically viewed front on, the rhythms of the bays are consistent, and with no traffic noise, the windows of the upper storey rooms open out directly to the courtyard. The timber on both sides of the building has been left untreated – currently a rich golden hue that almost radiates warmth in the cold winter light. The colour will, of course, change over time, and will do so differently on the north and south sides, so that each will acquire its own colour and even more distinct character.

The final bay of courtyard façade, which contains an existing staircase, is enclosed by brick and topped by a timber-framed, glazed lantern, which neatly marks the boundary between Jesus College and the part of the courtyard still occupied by the Wesleyans. This idea of using a tower to demarcate a threshold in the college type is explored even more explicitly in the entrance on Jesus Lane. Rather than occupying the end bay of the Rank Building, here the tower is set back as the road bends; and rather than being of brick, it is a wholly timber frame, allowing one to see right into the building and, in the case of the lantern, through to the sky beyond, in a way that appears both grand and understated at the same time.

Upon entering the building, however, it is not the tower that one comes to first, but a galleried hallway. The palette is brick – following the Webb building that provides one interior face, timber, and the now familiar vertical fins, the only notable exception being the patterned tiles set between the four supporting columns, denoting this as the nodal point of the entrance building.

The new and refurbished spaces already feel woven into the fabric of college life

The ground and first-floor levels provide access to the double-height lecture hall, both directly and via axial corridors, which run the length of the courtyard side and allow for ‘breakout space’ that is not just for networking over a cup of coffee, but having the time to pause and reflect. The lecture hall itself occupies the space formerly devoted to a car park. It has a galleried arrangement with stalls seating that can be arranged in the round or lecture-style. The extensive use of timber again sets the tone of the space and also provides acoustic separation from the noisy street beyond. The timber also conceals the various drainpipes from the hotel rooms on the floors above. In a clever touch, the doors to the hotel rooms are clustered in little hallways carved out of the corridors, which also connect vertically with lightwells, helping to foster the temporary intellectual community that will reside there.

Faced with a complex, multiphase project that comprises working with two existing buildings and creating several new ones, the tendency for many architects might be to treat each component essentially as an individual project. Here, however, Níall McLaughlin Architects has imbued the project’s disparate and disconnected parts with a remarkable sense of coherence; each component working in near perfect harmony. 

As McLaughlin observed when we first sat down, the new and refurbished spaces already feel woven into the fabric of college life – a testament to their success. Yet there’s also a feeling of anticipation and potential, not just in what later phases will realise in a physical sense, but in what the project as a whole will do for the intellectual and creative life of the college.

Owen Hopkins is a writer on architecture and senior curator of exhibitions and education at Sir John Soane’s Museum

Architect’s view

The West Court project, the first of three phases, presented a wonderful opportunity to incorporate these old buildings into a new heart for the college within its historic footprint. It was delivered in sequential parts over 18 months, with the refurbishment of the Grade II-listed building completed first, followed by the new café pavilion and basement bar, and finally the remodelled 1970s Rank Building and a new entrance building. 

Our designs had to respond to the variety of building stock and site conditions, and the wide range of construction types from renovation to new build. The lightweight glazed timber pergola of the café pavilion differs from the substantial brick and oak entrance building, which differs again from the balconies and profiled stone walls of the remodelled Rank Building. 

In terms of detailing, there was limited opportunity for repetition. Instead the various elements were unified through a consistent palette of high-quality traditional materials including oak, stone, brick and quarry tiles. Detailing responds to existing features and local opportunities. Untreated oak glulam framing around glazing was given a chamfered profile to echo the existing stone window surrounds. We hope, in time, the two materials will weather in harmony. New stone walls addressing the street have a scalloped texture to give relief, reinforce the façade’s verticality and deter graffiti. The pavilion’s timber structure is conceived as a pergola in the landscape, held on slim cigar-shaped columns and delicate cruciform connection details. 

The project’s many challenges included stringent planning constraints, a demanding programme, a constrained site and delivering a state-of-the-art lecture theatre with good acoustics in an existing building next to a busy road. Its success might be measured by the extent to which it has drawn this disparate collection of buildings back into the vital life of the college community while also providing an outward-looking public presence in the centre of Cambridge.

Níall McLaughlin

Client’s view

Our West Court development marks an exciting new chapter in our historic community by not only providing us with the opportunity to restore the college site to its original boundaries, but to offer much-needed extra space and up-to-date facilities to all our members.

Following the college’s purchase of the neighbouring Grade II-listed Webb Building in 2014, Níall McLaughlin Architects’ design and concept of West Court offered us a phased masterplan that would see the sensitive refurbishment, transformation and extension of that building, and provide us with a selection of additional spaces and amenities at a new level of excellence. 

Since the completion of phase one earlier this year, our students, fellows and staff have been able to enjoy the impressive facilities West Court has to offer. These include a multifunctional lecture hall equipped with the latest communications technology and flexible seating for up to 180 delegates; a dedicated events space; a modern café-bar with outside terrace area; as well as a suite of meeting and interactive rooms, all equipped with state-of-the-art video communication systems. An additional feature is the creation of 24 hotel-standard bedrooms and three serviced apartments offering guests the opportunity to relax amid the surroundings of our magnificent college.

Simon Hawkey, domestic bursar, Jesus College

Working detail

The two primary façades of the 1970s Rank Building address two very different outlooks. To the south, the building faces Jesus Lane, a busy road in the centre of the city with the gardens of Sidney Sussex beyond. The hotel rooms on this side enjoy full-width glazing and sunny balconies with views across Cambridge. Solar shading is provided by oak brises soleil. Stone with a scalloped profile gives relief to the solid walls at ground level. Secondary glazing at first floor provides acoustic insulation to the lecture theatre while allowing daylight in. Working from 8 to 4 to 2 as the façade ascends, each bay is given a vertical order that chimes with the historic streetscape. 

To the north, the building addresses the Grade II-listed Webb Building and its tranquil courtyard. Here the rooms enjoy a central window desk and two shutters providing natural ventilation. The lower two floors contain circulation and have full-height windows with integrated bench seating. The new façade bays are presented as two two-storey timber-framed volumes slotted between existing brick piers, the top one stepping back in line with the existing building. This brings the new north façade into proportion with the surrounding Webb Building windows. 

Both façades use oak glulam. Prefabricated sections were delivered to the site and erected into position in a matter of days. The oak is treated with preservative but will be allowed to weather naturally, greying down to a tone matching the stone and buff brickwork.

Tom McGlynn, project architect, Níall McLaughlin Architects

Project data

Start on site February 2015
Completion April 2017
Gross internal floor area 4,140m²
Form of contract JCT Design and Build 2011 with amendments 
Construction cost £12.5 million
Construction cost per m² £ 3,000 (average rate covers mix of refurbishment, extension and new build)
Architect Níall McLaughlin Architects 
Client Jesus College, Cambridge 
Structural engineer Peter Brett Associates 
M&E consultant David Bedwell & Partners 
Quantity surveyor/cost consultant Edmond Shipway 
Acoustic consultant Gilliero n