Yingting Qian STEM lab for St Mary’s Junior School for Girls in Cambridge (extracted by the AJ)
The 45.7m² scheme on the forecourt of the school on Chaucer Road has been formed by retrofitting an existing greenhouse into a specialised STEM teaching space for the school’s four to 11-year-olds, part-funded by a donation from a former overseas boarding pupil. (I read the lovely background story about how a former boarding student from this school donated the funds to build this project. Ivy Qian is a student from China, who went on to study in Cambridge, she returned to launch the new building last year. She now works at Goldman Sachs in Shanghai)
Dating back to the 1970s, the greenhouse had previously housed the wind tunnel testing facilities of the Martin Centre, Cambridge University’s Department of Architecture research arm, before the site was taken over by St Mary’s.
The design approach was to re-use as much as possible of the existing structure, resurfacing it to retain the memory of the outbuilding as a familiar volume along the street.
The concrete slab foundation and aluminium frame of the greenhouse have been preserved, while fragile glass panels have been replaced by a polycarbonate façade system. A new internal timber frame forms the primary structural element to accommodate insulation, utilities and concealed computer stations, which fold out to form desks.
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| Extracted from the NEBAU website |
Today is out little celebration of Arlene's 50th, we cooked two types of pasta and a chopped salad, everyone helped - it was a nice team building exercise. I noticed some folks did not get involved in the food prep or cooking. I think this is not because of laziness but because a predetermined decision that they are not good at cooking. It is never too late to learn.
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| community kitchen |
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