Robinson College, Cambridge

Robinson College, Cambridge

Robinson College, a college of the University of Cambridge, was designed by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia and constructed between 1977 and 1980. The college is built around a structural frame of reinforced concrete. Its walls are faced in a variety of handmade red bricks produced by the Swanage brickworks and laid in stretcher bond. Square windows in varied grid-like configurations puncture the walls throughout. Roofs are covered in pantiles and some upper walls are hung with plain tiles. Almost all exposed internal timber is quarter-sawn Douglas fir from British Columbia, with the exception of some oak panelling and flooring in the dining hall.

Plan and Layout

The college has a basement podium, a raised ground floor around which most of the communal facilities are grouped, one principal upper level and further upper storeys of accommodation. The buildings follow the perimeter of the site boundary along Grange Road and Herschel Road, with inhabited inner and outer walls of accommodation either side of a linked series of courtyards at the centre. The majority of residential accommodation faces the inner garden side of the site.

Exterior

The college buildings follow the eastern half of Herschel Road and continue to form an L-shaped block along the length of Grange Road, terminating at Adams Road. The whole site stands on a basement podium which creates a raised ground floor deck, principally accessed through the ramped entrance at the porters' lodge. On the outer and inner sides of this deck there are inhabited walls of accommodation. At the centre is a series of linked courtyards paved in brick.

Outer Block

The Herschel Road elevation comprises several residential flats over three storeys with a set-back, tile-hung upper storey. At ground floor there is a broad flat archway leading into the basement car park. The upper storey is broken into smaller blocks with individual features such as a glazed porch and a winter garden.

The south elevation of the library is signified by three triangular bay windows running from the basement to the first floor, each glazed within a lattice of square glazing bars. The library's south-east elevation is a point of major architectural emphasis. From basement to first floor a stepped pyramid of glazing rises, projecting slightly from the wall surface. Above it, suggesting crenulation, are three glazed embrasures at second floor level, and in the hipped, pantiled roof is an inverted dormer forming a small roof terrace.

A ramped entrance connects the street to the raised deck of the ground floor through a square archway that incorporates the library's north-east window. The archway has a portcullis-like lattice below it, and a balcony above, all connected to the five-storey tower over the porters' lodge. The whole impression is of a defensive gatehouse in the tradition of Queens' College.

The first block along Grange Road is ten bays long and three storeys high. It features a number of wooden lattices fixed to the exterior, varying in height and shape, with several basement entrances and large expanses of blank walling. The principal feature is the projecting clerestorey walkway of the chapel, which takes its form from the 'hen run' of the Glasgow School of Art.

An open space bridges the gap to the second block along Grange Road. This second block is three storeys high with an open basement wall screened by lattices. At the raised ground floor there is a continuous oriel window seven bays wide, above which is a jettied run of first floor rooms. Both of these upper levels are college offices. This block has a tower-like termination where it rises to the level of High Court.

Where this corner tower joins the Grange Road elevation of High Court there is an especially complex junction, formed from multiple planes of receding and projecting elements. The Bin Brook runs below the basement and is crossed by a tangle of bridges at basement and ground floor levels (the ground floor bridge has been glazed since its construction). A stepped ramp connects the ground floor to the street. The building projects outward at first floor, and a small square balcony steps forward again to meet the corner tower. Over the bridge at the second storey the accommodation is recessed to form a balcony.

Beyond the brook on the Grange Road side the building continues as a three-storey structure above the basement. A long series of windows at the raised ground floor signifies the workshops of the maintenance department. The north-east corner has recessed balconies at the second floor. The north elevation marks the termination of the outer block where it meets Adams Road, with a large double-height vehicle entrance into the loading bay at basement level, screened by metal gates in the same lattice motif that recurs around the college.

Garden Side

From Adams Road to Herschel Road the inner side of the college stands roughly parallel to the outer side. At the Adams Road corner the blank walls of the service yard have some new doorways inserted at the lower level before the line of the building is opened up to provide a viewing point from the raised deck at High Court. The viewing parapet is between two towers, the tallest on the south side incorporating a large chimney flue.

Between the tower and the Bin Brook there is a short section of accommodation that establishes the pattern of student housing seen throughout the garden-side blocks. The basement and ground floors are given over to service and communal facilities. The upper four floors all provide student bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms. At first floor there is a continual walkway that connects all the way to the end of the Herschel Road block, marked every other bay by storey-height windows beneath the short colonnades of turned bricks that support the balconies of the rooms above. The blank and inhabited bays alternate at the third floor where the balconies are recessed with blank walls behind them. The fourth is covered in hung plain tiles and has triangular recesses in line with the balconies below it, contributing to the crenulated silhouette.

Individual elements have particular differences. Where the buildings cross the Bin Brook there is a large rectangular opening within which a stepped ramp leads down to the garden level.

The Garden Restaurant has a fully glazed ground floor, eleven bays in width, with a recessed clerestorey (or photobolic screen). Above it is the bar and Junior Combination Room, which has a two-bay recessed balcony. The terrace in front of the restaurant was remodelled in 2016.

The dining hall steps forward from the main elevation, creating a wider balcony above. Its garden elevation is largely screened by foliage but includes eight large clerestorey windows lighting down into the lower level of the hall below.

Between the dining hall and the auditorium at basement level is the garden room and seminar room, and at ground floor level is the Senior Combination Room, all fully glazed.

The auditorium thrusts forward with canted sides and is totally unglazed. It maintains the rhythm of turned brick pilasters found throughout the rest of the garden front. Its roof is a wide brick-paved deck joined to the continuous first floor walkway. To the right hand side is a two-storey entrance that connects both to the auditorium and to the associated workshop.

The garden front of the Herschel Road block continues the same detail as the main buildings for its upper storeys, and extends the student staircase directly down to the garden. An unglazed passageway runs across the raised ground floor level creating a long, connected balcony. This block terminates in a hexagonal tower at its western end, connected to the differing levels of accommodation with a variety of junctions and balconies.

Front Court

Front Court is trapezoid in plan and is accessed through the gatehouse-like porters' lodge. Opposite the lodge the accommodation steps upwards over four and a half storeys, terminating in a pitched roof flanked with stair turrets. The first and second floors have continuous balcony walkways, while the individual bedrooms of the second floor project forward to create the balconies of the floor above. This is the standard pattern used for the inner side of Long Court. At ground floor there is storey-height glazing leading to lounge and foyer spaces for the auditorium. The other three sides of the court include the chapel, library, and residential flats.

The central feature of the chapel's Front Court elevation is the large window that swells outwards and replaces the brick walling in large, asymmetrical steps. Piper's stained glass is clearly discernible from the outside. To the left is the principal entrance: a large doorway furnished with artistic bronze work by Jacqueline Steiger. A complex brick surround of stepped forms coils around it. A similar brick detail is repeated at the smaller right-hand entrance.

The library connects to the tower over the porters' lodge. A slightly reduced mirror image of the stepped-pyramid window on the street side projects inwards into Front Court, and a single large window above it refers back to the crenulated street frontage. Another tower on the right hand side completes the library's defences.

The residential flats are two storeys high at this point and share the same playful square fenestration as elsewhere in the college. Triangular steps project outwards from a shared recessed porch, creating a square threshold for two flats.

Long Court

Long Court resembles a street more than a courtyard. It has one larger open space between the Linnet Room and the administration offices where there is a break in the buildings along the outer block. Both the inner and outer sides of the court have upper walkways. The inner block follows the same template as the upper storeys of the Front Court, while its ground floor provides entrances to communal areas. The administration offices have an upper half-storey hung with plain tiles.

High Court

Accessed via a flight of steps from the 'ground' level of Long Court, High Court creates another raised deck at first floor level. It continues the same pattern of student accommodation on the garden side, terminating in a tall hexagonal chimney/tower and a break in the building line to allow views into the garden over a parapet wall. Across the break there is a polygonal building with its own smaller tower forming the music suite. It connects to the outer block of the college where several sets (shared study bedrooms) are housed with shared second floor balconies and tall expanses of tile-hung walls.

Herschel Court

Herschel Court is divided from Front Court by a gateway-bridge with finely detailed stepped brick jambs. A second bridge crosses the Court at the end of the Outer Block. The outer accommodation contains residential flats rising two storeys above the deck. Some are accessed via the upper level, and others directly from Herschel Court through shared porches contained within T-shaped openings in the walling. The garden-side block is taller and longer. It has a continuous walkway at first floor level, and a succession of balconies stepping back towards the third floor.

Interior

The Chapel

The inter-denominational chapel has a long polygonal form that swells outwards towards Front Court at its centre. The narrow north and south ends both have galleries made from stepped slabs of French Massangis Jaune stone. At the north end, beneath the specially made Frobenius pipe organ (one of the earliest in England), is the antechapel and a smaller side chapel. The side chapel contains a square window with glass by Patrick Reyntiens ('Epiphany') and a stone screen against one wall, opposite which is a granite altar or holy table supported by three brick steps, and set against three receding angles of brickwork. Separating the antechapel from the chapel proper is a bronze gate with naturalistic leaves that climb up to the organ loft, produced by Jacqueline Steiger.

The space at the centre of the chapel proper has a complex form: the west wall opens through a large square archway, which steps down onto a round brick column at the left hand side. Beyond this is a huge asymmetrical stained glass wall showing 'the Light of the World' by John Piper. Opposite is a clerestorey that runs behind wide brick columns, connecting the two galleries. The floor of the worship space has a grid of patterned brickwork and stone. The pitched ceiling is lined with stained pine boards and is of varied planes. There are memorials to Professor Lord Lewis, the first Warden of the college; Peggy Umney, David Robinson's lifelong assistant ('without her help this college would not have been built'); and to Robinson himself.

The Library

The library is arranged over three floors and comprises a large area of bookstacks with desks and carrels, administrative areas, and some smaller ancillary spaces. The bookstacks are on all three levels and stand between large windows facing out towards Grange Road on one side, and into Front Court on the other. The upper two storeys are set back from these windows so that the library is lit with uninterrupted glazing. Each vertical column of the grid of glazing is marked by a fin of panelling to reduce the glare of sunlight. The fins, staircase, bookstacks, balustrades, some gated carrels and the fronts of the tiered balconies are panelled with perpendicular joinery that continues the lattice grid motif, contributing to the space's strong stylistic affinity to Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow School of Art.

Communal Spaces

The Dining Hall connects to the Senior Combination Room and Junior Combination Room via the north and south stairs respectively. It comprises a large open hall with clerestorey windows on the west (garden) side and a broad balcony on the east (Long Court) side. The clerestorey windows are interspaced by deep, narrow columns of brick with triangular ends. Beneath the windows are oak panels, a rare departure from the use of pine. The balcony front is built of finely detailed angled brickwork.

The Auditorium has a capacity of around 270. Seating is raked so that the auditorium is entered from the ground floor while the stage is at the level of the basement. The walls are formed of stepped planes of brickwork. Back of house spaces include dressing rooms and a workshop. Both the stage and workshop have double-height getting-in doors.

The Umney Theatre was created in 1990 and named after Peggy Umney. It functions as a smaller alternative to the large college auditorium. It has a complex suspended ceiling and hessian panels around its walls as an aid to the space's acoustic performance.

Garden Restaurant, Junior Combination Room, Bar (called 'the Red Brick'), TV Room, Games Room and Robinson College Students Association are all communal spaces that share the presiding characteristics of the college in their commitment to finely detailed brickwork combined with pine joinery.

The bop room in the basement has less refined surfaces but has retained its original layout, bar and sunken dance floor.

An original dark room for student use can still be found on K staircase.

The Middle Combination Room (a postgraduate common room) has a large amount of pine joinery, including shelving, panelling, and a vaulted ceiling of pine boards.

The Senior Combination Room (the fellows' common rooms) occupies a suite of facilities including lounges and dining rooms over two storeys between the auditorium and the dining hall.

The music suite accessed from High Court includes a high-ceilinged music room that has a polygonal plan, partly-panelled walls, and a small upper gallery. Additionally, there are music practice rooms, a soundproof 'hi-fi room' (now also a practice room), and a record library.

The porters' lodge is characterised by a high degree of pine joinery that employs the regularly repeated college grid motif. It is a two-storey space with the porters' mess on a mezzanine above the front desk, and also houses back office space and storage rooms.

Teaching Rooms

Typically single celled rooms with polygonal plan forms and dado rails.

Offices

The college offices have a flexible plan form that has been altered since their creation and underwent complete internal reconstruction in 2022.

Residential Areas

Student accommodation varies in standard so that some have shared bathrooms and some have en-suite facilities. Most accommodation is found along the inner garden side of the college, running from staircases A to S with shared kitchen facilities. Where rooms have been refurbished they still retain some original fixtures such as picture rails and fitted wardrobes. Where original bathroom and kitchen fittings survive they are standard features of their period rather than bespoke. Flats and sets have more complex plan forms.

Service Areas

Most service areas are located in the basement and in some small areas of sub-basement. Though a limited degree of reconfiguration has taken place, they are substantially unaltered. They have a utilitarian character in keeping with their function, with hardwearing surfaces of brick or tile and (in the workshop) limited areas of pine flooring. The 'cloisters' run the length of Long Court at basement level as an unglazed corridor screened with wooden lattices.