Pembroke College Library, Cambridge

Client – Pembroke College
Date of Completion – 2001

The original 18th century library was built to the design of Alfred Waterhouse. Freeland Rees Roberts were asked by Pembroke College to reclaim the whole of the original Waterhouse building for the undergraduate library to restore it and to increase its capacity for the storage of rare books and the number of study spaces. The Grade II* listed Victorian building housed lecture rooms on the ground floor, with the library itself on the first floor reached via a spiral stair in a grand clock tower. Various alterations made in the 1930s, 1960s and 1990s were reversed to restore the original spaces and reclaim them for the library.
A new basement was excavated beneath the existing structure for additional storage with a controlled environment for archive material. A new extension was built to accommodate a seminar room and law library. A fully glazed stairwell links these new rooms to the original library and forms the main entrance.
Hans Von Stockhausen of  the Mayer Studios in  Munich was commissioned to produce two installations: one  commemorates Ted Hughes, an alumnus; the other, covering the full height of the stairwell, was inspired by the scientific discoveries made by two members of the College.