New Building at 7 West Road

Plans are well underway for the construction of a new building at 7 West Road which will replace the currently un-used Victorian Villa which formerly housed the Faculty of Criminology. The accommodation needs from the new build are driven by the growth in activity of the newly formed department of POLIS and the convening functions of the Interdisciplinary Centres (IGC) and CRASSH. The location on the Sidgwick Site is of immense importance as it establishes a significant footprint on the Site and the building will be a beacon for the Social Sciences in Cambridge.

The new building at 7 West Road will be a four-storey construction of a total area of 4210square metres including basement, bringing together the following institutions which currently occupy accommodation in different locations on the Old Press Site and the New Museums Site.

  1. Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS)
  2. Centre for Research in Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH)
  3. Centre of African Studies (CAS)
  4. Centre of Latin American Studies (CLAS)
  5. Centre of South Asian Studies (CSAS)
  6. Development Studies Committee (DEV STDS)
  7. Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit (MIASU)

The new building has been carefully designed to blend in with the other buildings on the Sidgwick site. It will be constructed of buff coloured bricks with anodised aluminium bays. The generation of a courtyard, careful landscaping and a garden at the rear will provide a pleasant environment which will provide increased opportunity for social and academic interaction.

Internally, the building will have a north wing and a south wing attached to a central atrium housing the main staircase. The atrium has been specially designed to allow each of the seven institutions to have its own “front door” and to be located in a position within the building appropriate to its size and way of working whilst retaining its own identity.

The design of the building offers splendid accommodation proposing a suite of functional spaces which will accommodate teaching, convening, meeting, exhibition and seminar functions for all building users in addition to providing office space for established academic staff, administrative staff, visiting academics, Fellows and research staff.

The ground floor will house an area for catering and social space, and will be the hub of the building where occupants and visitors will be able to meet, eat and relax in a comfortable location. It is expected that this ground floor will be a dynamic area as it also houses the two ground floor seminar rooms which may open out into a 110 person seated room which will be heavily used for conferences.

The overall consensus is that the architects have delivered an imaginative and inspiring response to the users needs and the proposed design presents an exciting opportunity that fully embraces the flexibility and interdisciplinary ethos championed by the School and the institutions. The building is due for completion by the summer of 2011.

Proposed site plans of the building are available to download