The houses, designed by architects Cottrell and Vermeulen with Barnes Construction as the building contractor, echo the College’s existing architectural style and in particular the three current graduate houses named Bondi, Broers and Hawthorne houses and affectionately known as the ‘Pepperpots’. These were designed by the same firm of architects and opened in the late 1990s. The new houses include features such as bespoke terracotta tiling, copper roofing, wooden floors and window seats in the interior. The roofing, flooring and seats are heavily influenced by the main College buildings and some exterior features by the arts and crafts housing on Storey’s way.
The new housing is comprised of 30 en-suite student rooms and five studio flats to house graduate students at Churchill College. The new accommodation means that the College will be able to offer housing for all of its graduate students on-site for at least two years of study, so that they can enjoy being part of the College community and access all academic, social and dining facilities on campus.
The new housing was financed mainly by fundraising with £3million of the £5million cost contributed by generous donors to the College. Over three hundred alumni made donations to help build these new houses, with many donors being former graduate students of the College. Anonymous donors also provided £350,000 of matching funding.
The Master of the College, Professor Dame Athene Donald FRS said: "We want to make sure we are at the forefront of provision for all of our graduate students. The award-winning Bondi, Broers and Hawthorne graduate houses have worked fantastically well and we’re delighted that we chose the same firm of architects for the new housing. The new houses provide a uniform approach and give a strong sense of a graduate community in the West corner of our site."
Two of the new houses will be named after former Masters of Churchill Sir David Wallace and Sir John Boyd.
Image: The project team