Churchill College is delighted to announce that Cowan Court, Churchill’s newest development, has won a Royal Institute for British Architecture (RIBA) East of England Award
The student accommodation, designed by Tom Emerson of 6a Architects, was opened in September 2016 by HRH the Duke of Gloucester. It is named after alumnus and major Benefactor to Churchill, Michael Cowan (1970).
The new building has Scandinavian overtones, with pale decoration, bespoke furniture, a tree-filled courtyard and large outward-facing windows in all rooms. It is also in keeping with the College’s environmental and sustainability strategy. Green credentials include a highly insulated building ‘envelope’, comprising a glulam timber-framed building clad with reclaimed oak; photo-voltaic cells on the roof to provide more electricity than the building consumes; and natural ventilation with opening panels to either side of the special solar glass in the triple-glazed windows. The trees inside the courtyard provide shading for the corridors running around each floor.
Mr Cowan said at the opening ‘Going forward we at Churchill wish to attract some of the best undergraduate candidates from the world and we compete for them against many other well-endowed colleges and universities. Good facilities do matter.’
Churchill College can now house all its undergraduate students throughout their degree in term-time, and the accommodation is available for commercial use in the vacations.
This award joins other plaudits the building has received. It was listed as one of the UK’s five best new buildings of 2016 in a review of the year published in both The Guardian and The Observer.
