History Faculty Building

The History Faculty Building was built between 1964 and 1968 for the University of Cambridge to designs by James Stirling. It was renovated in 1985–1986 by Bickerdike Allen Partners.

Materials and Construction

The building has a reinforced concrete frame with a steel roof structure. It was originally clad in red brick, tile and patent glazing, though most of the tiles on the lift towers and walkways were replaced with red brick of identical colour during the 1985–1986 renovation. The terraces and podium originally had cast-concrete tiling matching the colour of the brick, replaced by cast-concrete slabs around 1986. Interior finishes include plaster, with acoustic boarding on the walls of the reading room, and steel tube trusses supporting the lean-to lantern.

Plan

The building comprises an L-shaped block of six storeys over a concealed basement, running east and south from the north-west corner. This block contains common rooms, seminar rooms and tutors' rooms. A pair of square-plan circulation towers is attached to the north elevation. A fan-shaped reading room fills the south-east corner.

Exterior

The L-plan block rises six storeys above a concealed basement. The roof is flat, with a suspended gantry fitted with extendable davit arms for window cleaning. The walls taper with height and are entirely glazed, incorporating two sections of glazed louvres at the lower part of each level. Some panes of patent glazing on the first and second floors of the west elevation were replaced by louvres in the late 20th or early 21st century. The east and south ends of the L-plan block have red brick elevations.

Twin circulation towers are attached to the north elevation. These were formerly clad in red tiles until replaced by red brick in 1986, and are connected to the L-plan block by glazed bridges on the upper levels where the building tapers inwards. The totem aspect of the circulation towers marks the main approaches. A sculptural canopy attached to the west elevation of the towers indicates the two main entrances at the north-west corner: the main entrance at ground floor level serves library users, while an adjacent ramp to the first floor provides direct access for senior members to the upper floors, allowing them to avoid large numbers of students around the library entrance. The ramp also provides access to the podium—a terrace over the ground-floor level of the library—and is also reached via steps at its north-east corner. The podium formerly had smaller cast-concrete tiling matching the colour of the brickwork, but these were replaced by paving slabs around 1986.

Steps abutting the south elevation of the south arm and the east elevation of the east arm split in two to provide access to the first floor of the stairwells at the south and east ends, and also give access to the walkway on the canted roof of the first-floor bookstacks, which were refurbished around 2015. To the east of the circulation towers, a projecting first-floor research room has a roof terrace with a red brick balustrade wall (replacing a floating cast-concrete balustrade in the late 20th century), accessed via the second floor Senior Common Room. The double-leaf doors of the main entrance have been replaced in the late 20th or early 21st century, while the first-floor entrances and second-floor terrace retain their original doors with distinctive diagonal handles.

Occupying the south-east corner between the east and south arms of the L-plan block is a canted reading room with a glazed lean-to roof, tapering in at each level to an apex over the sixth floor. The semi-sunken reading room is bounded to the south-east, west and north by an inwardly-sloping paved plane or "moat". A platform and steps to the south-east of the reading room were removed in the late 20th or early 21st century, reducing the depth of the moat, and hoppers were added to the flanking walls of the bookstacks. The moats, steps and platforms are bounded by metal railings, with two intermediate rails added around 1998 for safety. At the north end of the east side, an L-plan bicycle enclosure is bounded by an opposing upwardly-sloping plane; its smooth paving was replaced with chequered paving in 2002.

Interior

Internally, the building has a tapering section reflecting patterns of use: the cloakroom, toilets and library reading room have the greatest density of occupation for 300 students and are therefore located at basement and ground levels respectively; student and staff common rooms are at first- and second-floor levels with seminar rooms above; and staff offices with low occupation density are located on the top floors.

The interior of the L-plan block has cork flooring throughout (with like-for-like replacement where required, for example on the stairwells, or overlaid with carpet in places), and is finished in white plaster and tile. Access to each floor is via the twin circulation towers on the north elevation, which contain a stairwell and a lift with an accompanying toilet, and glazed stairwells at the south and east ends of the L-plan block. The stair handrails, formerly painted red, had a top and bottom rail only until two intermediate rails were introduced in the early 21st century to comply with health and safety regulations.

From the circulation towers, glazed corridors extend south and east overlooking the glazed reading room. Much of the building's interior drama derives from the views from these glazed corridors and projecting bays over the library below. Each glazed corridor has two glazed fire doors, inserted around 1986. To the west and north of the corridors are meeting rooms, common rooms, seminar rooms and staff offices, which retain a high proportion of original partitioned walls with glazed panels over. The partitions were designed to be movable. The uses of some rooms have changed since the building was completed. Complicated systems of venetian blinds, secondary glazing and some air conditioners were added to the external walls around 1986. The first-floor meeting room and junior common room, overlooking the reading room, have had secondary glazing introduced in the late 20th century to reduce noise transfer. The L-plan block retains a high proportion of its original plan form, with the exception of alterations to the ground floor entrance area and custodian's office around 2005, the removal of stairs to the first-floor research room, and refurbishment of the first-floor staff cloakrooms, first-floor tea room and all toilets around 2010.

The fan-like form of the reading room was designed to be monitored by one person from a control desk in the north-west corner, which acts as a pivot point for the concentric reading desks and radial bookshelves, all of which are original. The area around the control desk was refurbished around 2008, with the control desk replaced and glazed balustrades and partitions, computers and soft seating introduced in the former card-index area. From the control desk, steps descend to a semi-sunken reading room, with bookstacks on two levels at the south-east end. A disabled access lift was added around 2002. The walls of the reading room are lined with white acoustic boards or plastered, and a high proportion of cork flooring survives, though some cork tiles have been replaced piecemeal during maintenance.

A variety of seating is provided in the reading room, either in specialist reading bays along the north and east walls, at large tables in the main area concentric to the control desk, or at long lines of fixed reading benches against the south-east wall of the bookstacks. The original desks and lamps have been retained; all chairs have been replaced. Access is provided from the ground floor of the bookstacks to the first floor via stairs on the west and north walls, and two spiral staircases in the canted corners. Each stair has intermediate rails added for safety around 2008. The first floor of the bookstacks overlooks the reading room with a metal balustrade rail, with glazing added around 2008.

The roof of the reading room has steel tubular trusses between two skins of glass. The upper skin has adjustable louvres for ventilation. The lower skin of glazing is translucent, producing shadowless natural light on the reading room tables below. The roof space between the two skins is up to 3.5 metres high and has maintenance catwalks accessed from hatches off the third-floor corridors, which provide access to the artificial lighting installation, no longer operable. The shape of the tapering roof causes heated air rising from the floor to be drawn upwards and dispersed through coloured extraction fans at the apex, never used due to noise.