West Court is made up of two 20th century buildings that have been sensitively refurbished, reconfigured and extended to provide additional facilities, with a landscaped court at the heart of the site. One of the buildings now houses a 160-seat Lecture Hall along with research facilities, teaching spaces and two floors of visitor accommodation. EWD has been mainly involved with the interior design of the accommodation facilities, which comprise 24 bedrooms and three visitor apartments.
The interior gives a nod to the mid-century, and has been carefully designed to accommodate all the amenities of a 3 - 4 * hotel. It includes floating desks and custom designed wall-to-wall joinery in natural oak, grey mirror and grey marble. Buttoned brown leather headboards look sleek and add comfort along with Scandinavian furniture and lighting and bespoke textiles by British designer Eleanor Pritchard. The neutral palette of browns and greys are punctuated with pops of bright colours. Eve worked closely with the College archivist to select historic and also whimsical black and white photographs from the archive to have enlarged and framed.
EWD designed, supplied and installed all of the furniture, lighting and window treatments for the accommodation spaces as well as for the Pavilion Bar and other areas of the project.
Eve Waldron says: “It has been a great opportunity to be involved with this wonderful project, where good design is celebrated. The client has been fantastic in really trusting in their team, and great projects result from great clients. We feel confident that the venue will be a success as the spaces feel open and light and the design is contemporary and on trend. There is nothing quite like this in Cambridge.”
The scheme offers an opportunity to make West Court a new heart of the College within its historic footprint. Domestic Bursar Simon Hawkey added: “West Court is a very exciting development for Jesus College and we are looking forward to showcasing our state-of-the-art facilities to students, Fellows, alumni and conference delegates.”
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