Wesley College shortlisted for 2019 RIBA East Award

We are pleased to announce that our project at Wesley House Theological College in Cambridge has been shortlisted for an RIBA East award.

RIBA East regional director Louise Todd said: “We have seen some really impressive entries in the East of England this year. The range of projects clearly demonstrates the many specialist skills that practices can offer, from conservation work and re-imagining outdated buildings through to designing highly energy-efficient one-off homes and social housing. All the architects and their clients are to be heartily congratulated on making it onto this year’s shortlist.”

https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/knowledge-landing-page/24-projects-shortlisted-for-riba-east-2019-awards

https://www.archdaily.com/913202/24-projects-shortlisted-in-2019-riba-east-awards

Further details on the project can be found below:

Wesley College

Wesley College, University of Cambridge

The Wesley College project is now complete after a two year construction period commencing in early 2015. Wesley College was purpose built in 1928 for the Wesleyan Methodist Church, and this scheme consolidates the College onto approximately half the original site, after an arrangement with Jesus College, to rationalise accommodation.

Fifteen new student rooms are grouped around the north east corner, extending the buildings facing onto Jesus College Fellows Garden. At the front of the site, part of a 1960s building was demolished to form a new main entrance for the College, with a purpose built Porters Lodge and administration provided on the ground floor for the first time in the College’s history, completing the original vision. Seminar rooms, a new library and a new dining hall and kitchens on the top floor complete the main part of the new building facing onto Jesus Lane and back into the main court.

The scheme is carefully stitched into the listed 1920s and C18 buildings adjacent. The highly constrained site, and the close proximity of the new buildings to the College Chapel have made this a challenging project. The high quality of materials in the original buildings have been resourced & matched with stone, hand made brickwork, joinery and Westmoreland slate.

CGA projects shortlisted for four RICS awards

We are pleased to announce that four of our projects have been shortlisted for regional RICS awards.

Anstey Hall and Wesley College have been shortlisted in the ‘Design Through Innovation’ and ‘Residential’ categories, for the East of England.

https://www.rics.org/uk/events/networking/rics-awards-east-of-england/

Heckington Windmill has been shortlisted in the ‘Building Conservation’ and ‘Tourism & Leisure’ categories, for the East Midlands region.

https://www.rics.org/uk/events/networking/rics-awards-east-midlands/

Finally, Winchester College has been shortlisted in the ‘Design Through Innovation’ and ‘Residential’ categories, for the South East region.

https://www.rics.org/uk/events/networking/rics-awards-south-east/

For more information on each project, please follow the links below:

Listed Property Show 2019

Cowper Griffith Architects are delighted to announce that we will be exhibiting at this year’s prestigious Listed Building Owners’ Show at Olympia, London, February 9th & 10th.

We look forward to meeting as many custodians of Listed Buildings as possible, and sharing some of our knowledge. 

We also hope to deepen our understanding of artisanal construction skills, to be demonstrated by a wide variety of craftspersons, all leaders in their field.

We expect it to be a stimulating weekend - come and see us on Stand E15!

#listedpropertyshowlondon2019 @olympia_london @Listed_Property

https://www.lpoc.co.uk/the-listed-property-show-london/

Chariots of Fire 2018

Cowper Griffith took to the streets of Cambridge for Chariots of Fire 2018, raising nearly £200 for the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation. Thanks for all the donations and support on the day - it made a real difference. We made it round the 10 mile course in 01:25:16 - finishing in a very respectable 179th place! There’s still time to donate:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cgajoggers

Sevenoaks Nature and Wellbeing Centre - Competition Entry

Cowper Griffith Architects recently participated in an RIBA organised international design competition for a new nature and wellbeing centre for the Kent Wildlife Trust. Our scheme was one of 300 submissions.

http://www.ribacompetitions.com/sevenoaks/entries.html

HLF Funded Heckington Windmill project wins NK Building Excellence Award

Our Heckington Windmill regeneration project won an award for 2018’s ‘Best Large Commercial Building’, and was shortlisted for both ‘Best Public Service Building’ and ‘Best Educational Building’.

The project’s success is in no small part down to the dedication of the project Architect and Associate, Karen Lim, and the contributions of consultants, sub-contractors, local authority and client body.

The Main Contractor (Newman Moore of Sleaford) worked in an exemplary fashion, and the mill complex has become a thriving hub of commerce and conviviality, centred around the Grade I Listed windmill – the only eight sail mill left in the country!

Our robust, simple buildings are complimented by beautifully detailed and executed joinery and imaginative interpretation.

We are grateful to the Trustees of the Windmill for allowing us to help them secure its’ long term future.

Site progress at Old Glebe Farm, East Mersea

Our project at Old Glebe Farm is progressing well on site. The scheme involves the construction of a new shop and cafe building for the community on Mersea Island, on the Essex Coast.

The steel frame is now up and the first floor is being constructed, and the cranked plan of the two pitched volumes can now be read. The project is due to be completed in Autumn 2018.

New Visitor Centre for Suffolk Wildlife Trust

We are very privileged to be working with The Suffolk Wildlife Trust to help realise a sensitively designed visitor centre on the Carlton Marshes reserve. The landmark building is key to providing a new gateway to what will be a national wildlife destination and one of the most accessible nature experiences in East Anglia. 

The new facilities, which are due to be completed by 2020, will be the starting point for visitors to explore the wetland creation. Planning permission was granted earlier in the year, and now that the funding is in place the project will very soon progress to the next stages. 

A number of press releases and articles have been published about the scheme, please refer to the links below for further details:

http://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/news/2018/04/23/suffolk-wildlife-trust-receives-%C2%A34m-national-lottery-funding

https://www.hlf.org.uk/about-us/news-features/excitement-suffolk-carlton-marshes-cashes

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/04/22/rare-american-bittern-sparks-mega-twitch-suffolk/

http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2018-04-23/new-wetland-to-be-created-in-suffolk-thanks-to-funding-boost/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-43855893

https://newanglia.co.uk/grant-kick-starts-new-8m-nature-reserve-project/

RIBA Student Mentoring Scheme

Cowper Griffith Architects are pleased to have been involved with the RIBA’s student mentoring scheme for 2017-18. The mentoring scheme is intended to give students an insight into practice and to enhance their learning experience.

CGA have been impressed with the ability and enthusiasm demonstrated by the students that it has mentored, and the practice looks forward to continuing involvement with the scheme in future.

Further information on the scheme can be found at: https://www.architecture.com/education-cpd-and-careers/studying-architecture/student-mentoring

Cowper Griffith appointed to restore Calverley Old Hall

Cowper Griffith Architects are delighted to have been appointed to develop plans to restore Calverley Old Hall, an exceptional medieval manor house between Leeds and Bradford.

The Landmark Trust held an international design competition for the project to rescue the derelict manor house, which received 75 entries. Cowper Griffith’s proposals have been selected, with our winning design creatively reinventing the original pattern of use in the house including the Great Hall & Solar.

The project is highly significant given that the Grade 1 house was built and inhabited by the Lords of the Manor of Calverley from c.1250 to the late 18th century, placing it in the top 2.5% of all listed buildings in the country.

The Landmark Trust is a charity that rescues extraordinary buildings at risk of being lost, restores them and makes them available for short holiday breaks.  The director Anna Keay said:

“We saw a really exciting and imaginative range of proposals for the revival of Calverley through the competition. However, the winning design stood out, and won the unanimous support of the panel, for its marriage of real sensitivity to the Grade-one listed building with an ingenious approach to creating wonderful, uplifting spaces within and around it.”

Chris Cowper, partner & design director at Cowper Griffith Architects, added:

“CGA are delighted to have won such a prestigious and rewarding project. Calverley Old Hall presents exciting opportunities, challenging us as designers to resolve a history of continuous change and invention, expressed in ruinous but rich detail. We are very aware that the success of the project will depend upon our ability to make the social history and architectural detail of the development of the Old Hall discernable & legible, through the expressed evolution of the masonry and worked timbers already exposed. We hope to create distinct but contemporary form and detail, subservient to the historic building, whilst enhancing the setting by drawing out and celebrating the tension between the new use and the architectural iterations visible in the historic fabric. We feel privileged to have been chosen by Landmark to take the Old Hall forward into the next phase of its history”.