Young’s Court Development at Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Project Info

Sitting at the heart of a major expansion of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, is a new timber-framed pavilion, providing a light and inviting space for social learning.

Young’s Court Development repurposes poorly performing existing buildings and under-utilised in-between spaces, stitching them together with additional new construction to provide residential, social and study space within the 400-year-old collegiate setting. Timber has been used throughout the project for both primary and secondary structures and joinery, creating a consistent architectural language that ties old and new together.

Exemplifying this approach is a new, highly sustainable, single-storey social hub which links two existing student accommodation buildings, replacing an old student bar. The pavilion’s expressed structure is formed of French Douglas fir glulam, with four columns supporting two primary beams, each spanning 11 metres. This creates an open, adaptable and flexible main space to accommodate the College’s evolving needs. Fully glazed external walls provide generous views of Chapman’s Gardens and the newly landscaped South Court. By carefully coordinating column positions and keeping the structure lightweight, the team were able to reuse the existing foundation slab, avoiding carbon-intensive new foundations.

Adjacent to the social hub, circulation space within the Old South Court was remodelled to provide additional informal study space. Joinery and linings within the hub and circulation space are predominantly formed of solid Douglas fir, with veneered micro-perforated panelling used where required for acoustic performance.