Magdalene College Library University of Cambridge Building Design, English Higher Education Architecture Photos
Magdalene College Library University of Cambridge Building
29 May 2022
Location: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, southeast England, United Kingdom
Design: Niall McLaughlin Architects

Photos by Nick Kane
Magdalene College Library University of Cambridge Design
Jury Report
A brief to create a college library with a lifespan of 400 years ? to replace a library gifted to Magdalene by Samuel Pepys 300 years previously ? is no small task. Niall McLaughlin Architects have certainly risen to the challenge with this deft and inspiring temple to learning.

The library combines load-bearing brickwork with exquisitely detailed horizontal engineered timber structure to establish a lofty, surprisingly vertical space with a complex three-dimensional tartan grid. The library draws on familiar predilections from previous McLaughlin projects ? the references to Louis Kahn?s handling of oak panelled window assemblies for example, via the housing for Summerville college, while also creating something wholly particular within the setting of the wider college. As with the best of the city?s many libraries, a great diversity of spaces to read and work are established, and reflecting its planned longevity, the building feels nicely slack ? bookshelves are barely half filled and an extraordinary sense of space pervades, like inhabiting a hugely luxurious treehouse.
The design of this library...