We’re delighted that the Dining Hall at Homerton College, Cambridge has been awarded a RIBA East Award. Our director Edmund Fowles and project architect Eleanor Hedley were at the ceremony this evening alongside Francesca Moore, vice principal at Homerton College.
Feilden Fowles’ design for the hall is symbolic of Homerton’s progressive character and its bold social ambitions, yet simultaneously sits in dialogue with the rich architectural heritage of Cambridge. There are echoes of the marching buttresses of King’s College Chapel, references to the Victorian Gothic Revival of Homerton’s Great Hall, and motifs of the neighbouring Arts and Crafts Ibberson Building. The highly crafted material and tectonic language combine as a marker of today’s architectural thinking, an embodiment of low-tech design principles: an Arts & Crafts building for the 21st century.
‘A young (ish) Cambridge college took a chance on a young architectural practice with big ambition and an even bigger heart. The result is a building that is a triumph of intelligent design with deep social, cultural, and environmental purpose.’ Francesca Moore
We’re sharing a film made by Jim Stephenson and Laura Mark, where Edmund speaks about the influence of the Arts and Crafts, low tech design and the social agenda behind the creation of the building.