RIBA announces winner of the 26th Stirling Prize
The New Library, Magdalene College in Cambridge by Níall McLaughlin Architects. The design includes closed-off rooms where groups of people can hold conversations.
The New Library, Magdalene College in Cambridge by Níall McLaughlin Architects. The space includes grand large communal tables.
The New Library, Magdalene College in Cambridge by Níall McLaughlin Architects. The gabled roofs and chimneys of the exterior are lit up at dusk.
The New Library, Magdalene College in Cambridge by Níall McLaughlin Architects. “There are some places where you can sit perched up like a bird on a branch,” says the architect.
The New Library, Magdalene College in Cambridge by Níall McLaughlin Architects. The ceiling floods light into the space drawing people in and creating a calming effect through the movement of light.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has named The New Library, Magdalene College in Cambridge by Níall McLaughlin Architects, as the winner of the 26th RIBA Stirling Prize.
The new building provides students at the 700-year-old University of Cambridge college with a new library – open 24 hours a day – incorporating an archive and an art gallery.
Set within the college grounds in Cambridge’s city-centre, the new library replaces the cramped study spaces of the adjacent 17th century Grade I listed Pepys Library and extends the quadrangular arrangement of buildings and courts that have gradually developed from the monastic college site.
Honouring the rich surrounding history, Níall McLaughlin Architects combines load-bearing brick, gabled pitched roofs, windows with tracery and brick chimneys that animate the skyline with contemporary sustainable design elements to create a building that will stand the test of time.
“The light-filled, warm-wood interior lifts spirit and fosters connections. Students have been gifted a calm, sequence of connected spaces where they, and future generations, will be able to contemplate and congregate, enjoying it both together and apart. The overarching commitment to build something that will stand the test of time can be felt in every material and detail, and from every viewpoint. This is the epitome of how to build for the long-term…”
-RIBA President Simon Allford
Visitors are met with an elegant brickwork façade and large wooden doors, which open into a tiered, timber interior, bathed in light. A triple-height entrance hall leads into a central double-height reading room. A regular grid of brick chimneys supports the timber floors and bookshelves and carries warm air up to ventilate the building.
Between each set of four chimneys, there is a large, vaulted lantern skylight. A connecting passageway above, along the building’s eastern end, provides views across the college and gardens and towards the river.
The grid structure delineates an array of spaces: wide zones for reading rooms and group study, and narrow zones for staircases and bookcases.
The layout also creates a range of study spaces for independent study — with desks set into bay windows, hidden in private niches and within shared zones – enabling students to be tucked away or among peers depending on their inclination.
This is a modern building that employs simple but highly effective passive ventilation and natural lighting strategies to minimise energy in use, and materials such as engineered timber structure to reduce carbon embodied in its construction.
Speaking on behalf of the 2022 RIBA Stirling Prize jury, RIBA President Simon Allford, said:
“The light-filled, warm-wood interior lifts spirit and fosters connections. Students have been gifted a calm, sequence of connected spaces where they, and future generations, will be able to contemplate and congregate, enjoying it both together and apart. The overarching commitment to build something that will stand the test of time can be felt in every material and detail, and from every viewpoint. This is the epitome of how to build for the long-term.
Well-designed environments hugely improve student success and wellbeing. They should be the rule for all students and teachers in all places of learning, not the exception.”
Architect, Níall McLaughlin said:
“The Magdalene College Library is a work of many hands and many minds. The College created the possibility for success in the way that they initiated and managed the project. The appointment of designers, consultants, builders, and craftsmen was treated with care.
Throughout the development process, our team was supported and robustly questioned in our decisions. We knew we were building for a client who was motivated to achieve the best outcome. Our responsibility to the history and future development of this learning community was clear. We were asked to build for the long-term using present resources wisely.
This is the first time a college has won the Stirling Prize. It is good to celebrate the contribution these remarkable communities have made to the development of modern architectural culture in Britain.”
The jury for the 2022 RIBA Stirling Prize was: Simon Allford (RIBA President and Chair), architects Glenn Howells (Founder of Glenn Howells Architects) and Kirsten Lees (Managing Partner at Grimshaw), and artist Chris Ofili. The jury was advised by sustainability expert Smith Mordak (Director of Sustainability & Physics at Buro Happold).
View the shortlisted projects for the 2022 Sterling Prize here.
