Stanton Williams extend the Judge Business School, Cambridge

Stanton Williams’ £21.5 million expansion to the Judge Business School brings the new Simon Sainsbury Centre, which has been designed with flexible and adaptable space for the school’s community

(Image credit: press)

By Harriet Thorpe

last updated 11 October 2022

Stanton Williams has added a new ‘layer’ to Cambridge University's Judge Business School with a contemporary extension to the former hospital building that was converted by architect John Outram into a centre for business education in the early 90s.

Reflecting the progressive role of networking in business communities and the evolution of contemporary education practices, the new four storey 5,000 sq m wing promotes social interactions with open and adaptable classrooms, sizeable break-out spaces and a generous foyer with broad circulation around the facility.

While the classical proportions of Outram’s ostentatious Cambridge Judge Business School may have dictated the room heights and floor levels of the new extension, beyond that the new wing is an aesthetic departure from its mothership – offering simple echoes and tactful hints instead such as the cream-coloured brick and slim colonnaded windows.

Cambridge Judge Business School — *The interiors reflect an interest in materiality and framed views feature across the building*

When Cambridge University donors Sir Paul Judge and Simon Sainsbury commissioned John Outram to redesign the former Addenbrookes hospital building in 1991, the building aspired to elevating the civic responsibility of education and business in Cambridge where a science and technology orientated business community was starting to grow.

The architecture, which Outram described as ‘great polychromatic temple’, therefore reflected the ambitions of the Cambridge Judge Business School to be a ‘player on the global stage’. The new wing, with its simple, smooth and direct design, communicates the achievement of this goal and the top-rated School’s position at the heart of ‘Silicon Fen’.

Stanton Williams’ sensitive and forward-looking ‘layer’ is another stage in the architectural history of the Cambridge Judge Business School site, which has grown from hospital, to business school, to global centre.

The entrance to the new wing is on Tennis Court road

Cream-coloured brick and slim colonnaded windows reflect the classical architecture of John Outram’s classical facade

wing for social interactions — The 5,000 sq m wing promotes social interactions with open and adaptable classrooms

Detail of the colourful facade of John Outram’s design for the Judge Institute in the early 90s

The interior of John Outram’s colourful redesign of Addenbrookes hospital

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Stanton Williams website (opens in new tab)

TOPICS

Education architecture

Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.