Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

Cambridge University has the largest law school in Britain, with 800 undergraduates and 200 postgraduate students. The Law Faculty is a place with traditions, but it is also forward-looking. The Faculty building provides state-of-the-art facilities for teaching and research, comprising the Squire Law Library, five auditoria, seminar rooms, common rooms and administrative offices.

The building sits at the heart of the Sidgwick site, the focus of humanities education at Cambridge, close to the Institute of Criminology and University Library. Its neighbours include James Stirling's History Faculty and it is surrounded by lawns and mature trees. This low, green garden context is the essence of Cambridge. The challenge, therefore, was to preserve the natural setting and to minimise the building's apparent size. The rectangular plan is cut on the diagonal in response to the geometry of the History Faculty and pedestrian routes across the site. It has a relatively small footprint, yet provides 8,500 square metres of accommodation without exceeding four storeys. This was achieved by burying the auditoria below ground, while the curving glass of the north facade helps the building to recede visually.

A full-height atrium forms the focus of the building. It links the different levels visually, creating a feeling of spaciousness, and draws daylight into the lower floors. Natural lighting is used to dramatic effect, especially in the Library, which occupies the upper three terraced floors and enjoys uninterrupted views of the gardens. The curving north facade is entirely glazed; the south, west and east facades are part glazed and incorporate devices to exclude solar gain and glare.

The building is highly energy-efficient. Its partially buried structure and exposed concrete frame combine to give it high thermal mass, making it slow to respond to outside temperature changes. Together with high insulation values, this allows the use of mechanically assisted natural ventilation throughout - only the lecture theatres require seasonal cooling. A lighting management system reduces energy consumption, while heat recovery coils, linked to the air extract, reclaim waste heat.

Interestingly, the building's environmental performance was put to the test during its first summer, one of the hottest on record. Happily, it performed extremely well.

Client: University of Cambridge
Consultants: Anthony Hunt Associates, Davis Langdon and Everest, YRM Engineers, Cambridge Landscape Architects, Arup, Emmer Pfenniger Partner AG, Halcrow Fox, Sandy Brown Associates, University of Cambridge Estates Mangement and Building Services