CASE STUDY | NEW LIBRARY, MAGDALENE COLLEGE ON THE SAME PAGE The distinctive appearance of the Stirling Prize-winning New Library at Magdalene College was inspired by Cambridge Universitys historic buildings and Max Fordhams ventilation strategy. Alex Smith reports on the melding of form and function in Nall McLaughlin Architects elegant design Sunlight modelling in SketchUp ensured students were not subject to direct sunlight at their desks 28 October 2023 www.cibsejournal.com T he past 12 months have featured a significant double for Max Fordham. As well as winning the accolade for best non-domestic project at the CIBSE Building Performance Awards, for Cranmer House at Cambridge University, it also played a substantial part in New Library at Magdalene College winning the 2022 RIBA Stirling Prize last October. Nall McLaughlin Architects design for the winning library, also at Cambridge University, is strongly defined by Max Fordhams passive-first environmental strategy, which minimised energy loads by including natural ventilation and generous daylighting. The RIBA judges said there had been exceptional engagement with environmental design principles by the design team. The robustness of the design was tested in the summer of 2022, when a heatwave saw temperatures reach 39.9C in Cambridge. Despite the large areas of glazing and lack of mechanical cooling, temperatures on the ground floor of the library rose to no more than 26C, thanks, in part, to the IES dynamic modelling undertaken by Max Fordham. The three-storey brick and masonry building replaces cramped facilities in the adjacent Grade-I listed Pepys Building. It is sited in a leafy location between the enclosed Masters Garden and the open Fellows Garden, and fits in with the quadrangles of established courts and buildings. The new building consists of a library across three floors, and an archive facility and picture gallery on the ground floor. It is naturally ventilated by 11 prominent brick chimneys, which rise above the roofline to exhaust warm air from the library interior. Fresh air is drawn in through arrow-slit ventilation flaps by window seats. The brick chimneys support the floors and bookstacks, and sit in a grid. Between each set of four chimneys there is a roof lantern comprised of four glazed gables, of which there are 12 sets in total. Load-bearing brick supports cross-laminated timbers (CLTs) that emphasise what the architect calls the