Case study: Storey's Field | Wienerberger UK

Introduction

Project: Storey's Field Community Centre and Nursery

Location: Eddington, Cambridge

Contractor: Farrans

Architects: McInnes Usher McKnight Architects (MUMA)

A joint venture by the University of Cambridge and Cambridge City Council, Storey’s Field offers Eddington residents an important multi-use space and a place of civic pride. The £8.3 million project was informed by months of consultancy with the local community.

The Eddington community now benefits from an architecturally impressive, versatile and practical space that can host weddings, memorial services, music concerts, art exhibitions, film screenings, parties, meetings, exercise classes and more. The local children also enjoy a private and secure nursery space where they can play and explore.

Storey's Field Community Centre and Nursery

The Challenge

Inspired by the college cloisters and courts of Cambridge, the design of every environment within the Storey’s Field Community Centre and Nursery was carefully considered.

The architects were challenged with creating a sustainable and multi-functional municipal hub which could easily adapt to a diverse range of activities and events for all members of the Eddington community. The aesthetics of the building needed to be elegant enough for ceremonies and adult events, but with playful touches to appeal to the nursery children.

The nursery is arranged around three sides of a landscaped courtyard, with the community centre on the fourth side. This open, welcoming and well-crafted structure is vented naturally using an underground labyrinth and has excellent acoustic performance, which is particularly important in the 180-seat main hall.

Using facing bricks as a building material gave the architects the freedom to create individual façades by playing with laying patterns, detailing and eye-catching features such as porthole and geometric shaped windows. The manipulation of the same brick product throughout the whole build brings a sense of cohesion to the project.

The Solution

Wienerberger Con Mosso facing bricks and special shaped bricks were supplied by Taylor Maxwell for the Storey’s Field Community Centre and Nursery. This cream, soft mud, creased multi brick has a soft and textured appearance which makes it ideal for both external and internal façades.

The beautiful variegated colouring of this brick further enhanced the tactile effects created by the various laying patterns installed around the building by Anglian Brickwork. The brickwork brings a sophisticated energy to the project, featuring perforated walls, irregular bands of vertical stretcher and soldier course bonds, stepped brickwork entrances and projecting vertical ridges. The intelligent three-dimensional use of bricks means that light and shadows change throughout the day as the sun moves.

The brickwork also contributes to the ventilation techniques used on the project, with the projecting, recessed and missing headers on the high-level courses of Flemish bond allowing for passive air extract routes at the east and went ends of the tall main hall.

Awards

With its stunning architecture and innovative design, it is no surprise that this project has been widely celebrated and won several prestigious awards.

Thanks to the impressive use of bricks on the project, MUMA were awarded 2018 Brick Development Association Awards in the Public Building and Outdoor Space categories, as well as the event’s most esteemed honour - the Supreme Award.

In 2018, Storey’s Field won numerous notable Royal Institute of British Architects awards, including the RIBA East Award, RIBA East Sustainability Award and RIBA East Building of the Year Award. The project was also shortlisted for the highly respected RIBA Stirling Prize.

As sustainability was a major consideration on this project, it is on track to receive Excellent (for the nursery) and Outstanding (for the community centre) ratings for its BREEAM certification.