The Brewhouse, Peterhouse College, Cambridge 

THE WORKS: Contemporary interventions included the new oak doors and double-glazed bronze casement windows, which all sit within 1930’s openings.  Traditional interventions comprise the internal stair with ‘splat’ balusters, the external oak means of escape staircase and the ground floor tea point, concealed behind folding cupboard doors.  More significant alterations, including the new internal and external stairs, lift and accessible WC were all located in the least historically significant spaces, mostly concentrated within the northern most bay of the building that was substantially rebuilt following the construction of the adjacent Pembroke library in 1876.  Crucially, this strategy has allowed the impressive and spacious first floor, with its two, large crown post tie beams, to be retained as an open space.    

Elsewhere, the original, historic elements of the building have been carefully and skillfully repaired and stitched back together.  The brick ground floor walls have been repaired with stainless steel ties where cracking had occurred, with repointing and rebuilding in handmade brick with lime mortar kept to minimum, but clearly expressed.  Existing historic timber window frames and entrance doors have been carefully repaired with new timber pieced in.  The existing ground level floors were lifted to allow a new breathable glasscrete floor with underfloor heating to be covered with both salvaged and reclaimed brick and stone floors.  The first floor was stripped and comprehensively strengthened and repaired.  The inappropriate cement render on laths to the external was also replaced with lime pargetting to an historic pattern discovered on .  The existing roof timber rafters, wall posts and joists had suffered badly from rot, particularly at their extremities. New sections were scarfed-in, and concealed steel reinforcement were introduced in place of the previous, crude exposed steels. 

The works overall strived to achieve the highest possible sustainability balancing that with the building’s historic status, traditional construction, and a requirement for it to ‘breathe’.  Breathable woodfibre insulation between and over the top of the first floor of the walls posts and rafters, has significantly improved thermal performance whilst still allowing the timber to the first-floor framing to be fully expressed internally as required by the Fellows.  An air source heat pump linked to underfloor heating at ground and first floors heats the building.  The system was designed to be linked to a site-wide ground source heating system, which the College plans to install.  This, with the high levels of insulation and double glazing, make the building highly energy efficient and sustainable. 

CONCLUSION: The professional team with a traditional craftsman builder with a keen eye for detail has enhanced, restored, and repurposed a significant historic building in a highly sustainable way providing it with a new use and secure future for the next 100+ years.