Student Housing

Student accommodation is traditionally an integral part of the higher education environment, and is increasingly considered to be a significant asset for attracting students and academics to an institution. Providing high quality living spaces as a part of a comprehensive learning experience is becoming a necessary prerequisite for universities in the context of today’s commodification of education. As architects, we seek to engage with students and staff to develop accommodation strategies that are appropriate for the culture of an institution and its approach to pedagogical philosophy, and respond sensitively to physical contexts. This sector is a natural extension of our extensive portfolio of built housing projects.

Our student accommodation at Newington Green focused on reconciling the institutional character of the project with the residential character of the area, whilst providing an appropriate social scale for the residential accommodation. Comprised of four pavilion buildings, each cluster contains its own stair and lift, which lead onto screen galleries open to the air but protected from rain by timber screens and planted mesh trellising.

We have also been appointed to design a new residential court and to restore and inhabit a number of historically significant buildings at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Our vision is a range of versatile, adaptive and flexible spaces and accommodation that will ensure that Pembroke continues to develop as a pre-eminent focus of intellectual and cultural excellence in the heart of Cambridge, thus also making a significant contribution to the long-term ambitions of the university as a whole. The new buildings will reflect the ethos, values and culture of Pembroke College, with a collegiate style that is restorative, inspirational, spacious, elegant and sophisticated.