Cambridge Student Services Centre

Education

An accessible, enduring new home for student wellbeing at the University of Cambridge.

Project Details

Cambridge, England

Location
University of Cambridge

Client
NIA: 6720sqm

Area
£29m

Value
2019

Completion

The Student Services Centre consolidates support functions previously scattered across the city into a single, welcoming building at the historic New Museums Site. Working with potential users, the design clarifies a complex brief while respecting the surrounding listed fabric.

Three listed structures are interwoven with a new brick and concrete addition. At its centre, a light-filled atrium serves as an orientating space, connecting entrances, offices and social areas while allowing discreet routes to private consultation rooms.

The flexible examination and teaching hall can be reconfigured for events or social use, complementing a refurbished 250-seat lecture theatre. Throughout, durable materials – brick, concrete and timber – are left exposed for longevity and warmth.

Outside, new courts and pathways improve circulation through the site, replacing outdated extensions with coherent public spaces. The reused stone portal from the former Examination Halls forms the main entrance – a gesture that ties the University’s past to its future commitment to student care.

“When people talk about how the university invests its resources, it is often said that it must choose whether to invest in people or to invest in buildings – as if they were mutually exclusive.

The fact is, we have to invest in both.

This Student Services Centre shows us why, and also shows us how we can achieve it. Here we have a modern, state-of-the-art building made specifically with people in mind. It offers students the best possible experience of student support, and it offers staff the best possible environment in which to support those students.”

Stephen Toope

Vice-Chancellor, University of Cambridge