Dining Hall, Homerton College, Cambridge

by Feilden Fowles Architects

Client Homerton College, University of Cambridge

Award RIBA East Award

Homerton College was incorporated within the University of Cambridge relatively recently – in 2010 – but has a legacy of 250 years of educational achievement and a progressive character that reflects its dissenting origins.

What architects Feilden Fowles have captured so well in its new Dining Hall, is a compelling vision of what the new college could be; speaking to the past, present, and future of this unusual institution. While drawing inspiration from the materials and details of the college’s early 20th century Arts and Crafts buildings, the Dining Hall subverts the character of traditional collegiate spaces. Open to the landscape rather than enclosed, light-filled rather than dark, it is suggestive of the egalitarian, diverse community the college seeks to build, and has become the focal point in the college’s social and cultural life.

Externally, its highly distinctive, sculptural form has succeeded in providing the ‘emblematic centrepiece’ the college sought as a symbol of its free-thinking character and bold social ambitions.

Read the full citation from the RIBA Awards Jury on RIBA Journal

Contractor Barnes Construction

Project Management Ingleton Wood Martindales

Structural Engineer Structure Workshop

Environmental / M&E Engineer Max Fordham

Acoustic Engineer Max Fordham

Sustainability Max Fordham

Civil Engineer (drainage) Peter Dann

Quantity Surveyor / Cost Consultant Bremner Partnership

Landscape Architect (concept) SEED

Landscape Architect (delivery) Hortus Collective

Gross internal area in m² 1,665