The Library is Open
The library’s interior is comprised of a glulam and CLT structure, timber windows providing plentiful light and houses oak shelving and tables (image: courtesy of Wood Awards).
A lofty glumlam and CLT addition to a Grade I-listed Cambridge college library by Niall McLaughlin Architects has won the Gold Award at the Wood Awards 2021.
The Wood Awards is a UK-wide competition recognising the use of wood in architecture and product design. The programme’s highest honour, the Gold Award, has previously gone to The Rye Apartments by Tikari Works (2020); Cork House by Matthew Barnett Howland with Dido Milne and Oliver Wilton (2019); and Maggie’s at the Robert Parfett Building by Foster + Partner’s (2016).
This year’s winner, the New Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, features a three-storey entrance hall and sits alongside the college’s historical Pepys Library. The judging panel praised its interplay between engineered wood, simple brickwork and oak shelves.
The New Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge sits alongside the college’s Grade I-listed historical Pepys Library (image: courtesy of Wood Awards).
“Magdalene College Library is a tour de force of architectural design and achievement,” explained Jim Greaves, who led the architectural judging panel. “The different forms of the reading rooms are beautiful and experienced sequentially as they lead one through the building. The brick, timber and stone has been designed exquisitely with a thorough understanding of their intrinsic qualities.”
Niall McLaughlin Architects’ building is composed of three interconnecting rooms, which are variously single-, double- and triple-height. The change in scale was designed to create a sense of the library spaces forming terraces as they move towards the open space of the college’s lawn.
The New Library is composed of three interconnecting rooms, which are variously single-, double- and triple-height.
The New Library’s interior spaces are made from a cross-laminated timber structure. The roof, meanwhile, is designed with large timber skylights to allow an even level of light to the main reading rooms whilst reducing glare.
The Wood Awards recognises excellence in product design and architecture in select categories. As well as the overall award, winners and highly commended projects are selected for each category. This year’s accolades went to:
Buildings
Commercial and leisure
Winner - The Alice Hawthorn
Highly commended - The Welcome Building RHS Garden Bridgewater
Interiors
Winner - St John Street
Education and Public Sector
Winner - Magdalene College Library
Highly commended - Ibstock Place School Refectory, David Brownlow Theatre
Small Project
Winner - Built:East
Private
Winner - The Boathouse
Highly commended - Wooden Annex
Structural award
Winner - The Welcome Building RHS Garden Bridgewater
Highly commended - Kantor Centre of Excellence - The Anna Freud Centre & Pears Family School
Furniture and Product
Production
Winner - Iso-Lounge Chair
Bespoke
Winner - Gayles Farm 5
Words Disegno
Source woodawards.com