School pupils had the chance to experience exceptional contemporary architecture with guides who are passionate about the built environment with a series of tours around the Sidgwick Site at the University of Cambridge.
School pupils had the chance to experience exceptional contemporary architecture with guides who are passionate about the built environment with a series of tours around the Sidgwick Site at the University of Cambridge.
More than 250 pupils from Chesterton Community College and Cottenham Village College visited the site.
In the Museum of Classical Archaeology, Dr Christina Riggs introduced children to the magnificent collection of plaster casts of ancient sculptures, and in particular the great friezes which once adorned the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, one of the most important buildings of the ancient world.
Professor Peter Carolin, former head of the University’s Department of Architecture, showed pupils the three striking glass-fronted buildings in the centre of the site, the Faculties of History, Law and Divinity, which contrast with the original 1950s Raised Faculty Building and even compete with each other.
Nick Champkins of the award-winning Allies and Morrison architects, introduced pupils to the newest building on the site, the Institute of Criminology, on whose design he had worked. His firm was also responsible for the new Faculty of English, both exhibiting typical qualities of clean simplicity and understated beauty.
Sarah Morrison of Cambridge-based architects Freeland Rees Roberts compared and contrasted different uses of concrete and glass around the site.
The Sidgwick Site is the University’s centre for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Often referred to as an 'architectural zoo', it is one of the country’s highest concentrations of recent architecture.
The original masterplan (1952) by Sir Hugh Casson of Casson Conder laid out a series of buildings based around green open spaces, to reflect the feel of the University's ancient colleges with their courts.
The famed Raised Faculty Building is his legacy in the centre of the site, a simple elegant building on stilts to allow clear views through the site while enclosing a grassed area. It is home to the Faculties of Modern and Medieval Languages, Philosophy and Economics.
Subsequent architects chose to ignore this masterplan, with James Stirling’s controversial if groundbreaking 1968 History Faculty and Lord Foster’s 1995 Faculty of Law, both in glass, and Ted Cullinan’s Faculty of Divinity (2000). More recently, Allies and Morrison’s revised masterplan tries to regain the essence of the original with dignified buildings enclosing courtyards.
Children, armed with questionnaires and portable cameras, were enthusiastic as they explored the site. One teacher said “We never realised there was so much exciting modern architecture all in one place here in Cambridge. This has been a fantastic learning opportunity for our students.”
The Museum of Classical Archaeology, housed in the Faculty of Classics just off Sidgwick Avenue, contains life-size plaster casts of more than 600 major pieces of Greek and Roman Sculpture. The collection was put together in the 19th Century to help the study of ancient art when travel to Greece and Italy was more difficult, and is now housed in a bright purpose-built gallery. It is open to the public, free of charge, every Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings in school term time.
The Tours were organised by Shape East, the Architecture and Built Environment Centre for Cambridge and the Eastern Region, and the national ‘How Places Work’ programme.
Shape East have produced a web-based guided tour of some of the University’s finest contemporary architecture. Click on the link above right for more information.
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